So  sweet  a  kiss  the  golden  sun  gives  not 
To  those  fresh  morning  drops  upon  the  rose, 
As  thy  eye-beams  —Low's  Labour  Lout. 


THE  Master  said :  "Where  the  solid  qualities  are  in  excess  of 
accomplishments,  we  have  rusticity.  Where  the  accomplishments  are 
in  excess  of  the  solid  qualities,  we  have  the  manners  of  a  clerk.  Where 
the  accomplishments  and  solid  qualities  are  equally  blended,  we  then 
have  the  man  of  complete  virtue." 

CoNFuoiua    (Chinese  Classics.) 


"  To  dwell  in  the  wide  house  of  the  world,  to  stand  in  the  correct 
seat  of  the  world,  and  to  walk  in  the  great  path  of  the  world   . . 
to  be  above  the  power  of  riches  and  honors,  of  poverty  and  mean  con 

dition,  and  of  power  and  force these  characteristics  constitute  the 

great  man." 

MBMCIUS.    (Chinese  Classics.) 


"They  who  are  first  Informed  should  instruct  those  who  are  later 
in  being  informed,  and  they  who  first  apprehend  principles  should  in- 
struct those  who  are  slower  in  doing  so." 

MENCIUS.    (Chinese  Classics.) 


DRESS: 

As  IT  HAS  BEEN, 

Is, 
AND  WILL  BE. 


DESCRIBING  WITH  PARTICULAEITY  EECENT  INNOVA- 
TIONS, AND  FORECASTING  THE  TENDENCY  OP 
MALE  DRAPERY  FROM  WHAT  WE  KNOW, 


TOGETHER  WITH  ALL  THAT  is  PRACTICAL  TO-DAY. 


By  ISAAC  WALKER. 


NEW  YORK: 

ISAAC    WALKER,    275    FIFTH    AVENUE. 
1885. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1885, 

BY  ISAAC  WALKER, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  "Washington. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


In  preparing  this  volume  for  publication, 
the  author  has  sought  to  present  in  serious 
language  the  aspect  of  the  varying  costumes 
of  mankind  throughout  history,  until  the 
present  day,  from  a  purely  artistic  standpoint. 
The  time,  he  believe?,  is  ripe  for  such  a  treat- 
ise, written,  as  this  one  has  been,  in  a  con- 
scientious vein,  and  embodying  the  experi- 
ence of  a  life-time  in  the  designing  and 
making  of  men's  outer- wear,  both  in  England 
and  the  United  States.  And  the  author  has 
been  the  more  prompted  to  undertake  this 
semi-professional  task  because  he  has  noted 
the  rapid  changes  in  taste,  both  as  to  fabrics 
and  ideals  of  style  which  are  to  be  seen 
throughout  the  Union.  The  great  houses 
that  used  to  flourish  on  the  trade  of  the 
elite  are  swiftly  passing  away,  and  giving 
place  to  those  proficient  in  the  highest  forms 


1048641 


viii  Introductory. 

of  art;  while  immense  manufacturing  estab 
lishments  turn  out  cheap  material  and  ill- 
fitting  garments  for  the  multitude. 

In  the  advanced  line  of  merchant  tailoring 
are  now  found  elegantly  appointed  shops, 
filled  with  imported  goods  of  only  the  first 
qualities.  In  these  establishments  a  man  is 
not  dressed  in  a  minute,  but  his  peculiarities 
of  frame  are  ma-le  the  subject  of  careful 
study,  and  his  adaptability  to  special  styles 
and  colors  is  seen  in  the  light  of  experience 
and  cultivated  judgment. 

However  these  pages  may  impress  the 
reader,  it  cannot  be  controverted  that  in 
general  and  detail,  truth,  and  a  sincere  wish 
to  elevate  the  art  of  becoming  attire,  have 

O  / 

been  the  only  aims  of  the  author. 

ISAAC  WALKER, 
No.  275  Fifth  avenue. 
N.  Y.,  Oct.  1,  1885. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DRESSING,  AS  A  FINE  ART,  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

IN  the  mind  of  the  future  historian  a  new 
movement  in  the  social  life  of  America  will 
always  date  from  the  close  of  the  civil  war. 
That  bloody  conflict  roused  the  continent 
from  an  era  of  supine  and  peaceful  life,  from 
a  period  of  hum-drum  and  homely  lethargy 
into  an  eager  ambition  to  start  on  a  fresh 
march  toward  a  higher  civilization  implying 
loftier  standards  of  literature  and  art — in  fine, 
more  imposing  architecture,  better  schools  of 
painting  and  sculpture,  a  finer  taste  in  male 
and  female  costume,  and  an  indulgence  in 
those  refined  luxuries  which  always  follow  on 
the  elevation  of  the  national  manhood,  and 
the  sudden  growth  of  large  fortunes.  This  is 
not  true  of  the  United  States  alone,  but  will 
be  found  in  the  mutations  of  European  States 
as  well,  and  is  perhaps  nowhere  better  ex- 
emplified than  in  the  triumph  of  the  German 
arms  in  1870-71 ;  the  founding  of  an  em- 
pire the  greatest  since  the  Caesars  ruled  in 


10        Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S. 

Rome,  and  the  consequent  stamp  of  a  prouder 
and  more  independent  individuality  on  the 
Teutonic  mind.  And  with  this  assertion  of 
indomitable  self  in  the  nationalities  wher- 
ever found,  comes  the  determination  to  ex- 
hibit its  sisrn-manual  in  an  outward  form,  and, 

O  ' 

primarily,  that  is,  in  dress.  Who  will  say  that 
the  American  gentleman  of  the  period  since 
1865,  is  not  one  of  much  more  culture  in 
matters  of  art  than  he  of  the  ante-bellum 
days  ?  Who  will  say  that  the  American  of 
1885,  of  whatever  social  grade,  is  not  a  much 
better  dressed  man  than  corresponding  gen- 
erations before  the  war?  And  the  traveler 
in  Germany  will  find,  too,  that  in  the  fifteen 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  the  sanguinary 
struggle  with  France,  Teutonic  attire  has  im- 
proved in  style  and  fabric  to  an  astonishing 
degree.  This  all  comes  from  the  sudden  rise 
in  the  national  tone,  the  same  transition,  for 
example,  that  is  apparent  in  the  conditions  of 
a  man  poor  at  the  one  extreme  and  rich  at  the 
other.  But  in  no  country  of  the  world,  of 
this  or  any  other  time,  has  the  advance  from 
a  slovenly  habit  of  dress  to  one  of  elegance 
and  good  taste  been  as  swift  to  the  ulti- 


Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art.  in  the  U,  S.        11 

matum  as  in  the  United  States.  This  prog- 
ress we  see,  too,  not  only  on  the  Atlantic 
sea- board,  but,  traveling  westward  by  easy 
stations,  we  behold  a  total  change  for  the 
better  in  the  last  twenty  years,  showing  that 
the  art  of  dressing  well  has  kept  pace  with 
those  hand-maids  of  art,  music  and  the  drama, 
in  the  leading  cities  and  towns  of  the  interior. 
Is  there  any  other  proof  necessary  to  demon- 
strate that  costuming  the  man  in  the  prevail- 
ing garb  of  the  day  demands  as  fine  a  con- 
ception and  application  of  the  rules  of  high 
art  as  this  very  circumstance  of  the  invasion 
of  the  interior  cities  of  America  by  a  superior 
kind  of  culture?  Before  the  war  it  was  rare 
to  find  a  place  of  20,000  inhabitants  with  a 
theatre  or  opera-house,  but  now  there  is 
scarcely  a  place  numbering  half  this  popula- 
tion which  has  not  its  finely  appointed  house 
for  lyric  and  dramatic  display,  whereas  for- 
merly the  old-fashioned  hall,  with  wooden 
benches,  perched  on  the  top  of  the  town's 
loftiest  warehouse,  was  the  place  of  amuse- 
ment whither  the  goodly  folk  repaired  for  in- 
tellectual recreation. 

The  almost  universal  use  of  the  piano,  the 


12        Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S. 

vast  volume  of  inter-State  tiavel,  the  annual 
pilgrimages  to  metropolitan  centres,  and  last, 
but  not  least,  the  yearly  visits  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Americans  to  Europe,  have 
leavened  the  masses  and  cosmopolized  this 
people  until  it  may  be  said  that,  taken  as  a 
whole,  Americans  are  the  best  clad  people  in 
the  world.  It  is  a  curious  study,  too,  to  note 
the  movement  by  which  this  has  been  accom- 
plished, if  we  leave  for  a  moment  out  of  con- 
sideration the  great  cities.  Take  our  city  of 
twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  as  before.  A 
score  of  years  ago  fine  dress  suits  could  hardly 
be  found  among  the  whole  population.  That 
was  when  it  was  not  churchmanlike  to  go  to 
the  play,  or  in  pursuit  of  pleasure  to  travel 
beyond  the  Calvinistic  notion  of  enjoyment. 
Opera  bouffe  had  no  countenance  in  those 
days.  Patience,  Pinafore,  and  The  Mikado 
would  have  been  driven  penniless  from  the 
town  by  the  potent  breath  of  the  pulpit; 
whereas  now  the  strains  of  the  latest  lyric 
compositions  sung  on  the  local  Boards  are 
heard  issuing  from  many  households  of  the 
town.  And  not  only  this,  but  the  youth  of 
"both  sexes  delight  in  talking  art  and  prac-- 


Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S.        13 


ticing   it   also  to  a   limited  extent;   private 
theatricals  reign  in  the  local  assemblies,  and 


costuming  in  character  is  cultivated  by  the 
young  of  both  sexes.     Is  there  any  one  so 


14        Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  8. 

blind  as  not  to  see  that  this  typical  town  of 
America  is  a  highly  interesting  social  micro- 
cosm in  itself,  presenting  an  abundant  field 
for  philosophical  study,  as  showing  healthy 
advances  in  culture  at  last  culminating  in 
that  art  which  seems  the  last  to  command  re- 
spect, but  when  once  mastered  is  the  last  to 
be  lost — dress  ?  And  let  us  note,  too,  that  a 
man  who  has  once  known,  and  has  been  thor- 
oughly in  sympathy  with,  good  suitable  attire, 
will  never  abandon  it,  save  commanded  by  a 
resistless  fate.  Fine  eating,  good  wine,  cards, 
horses,  athletic  sports,  and  boon  companions 
will  all  go  before  the  surrender  of  the  gar- 
ments which  have  made  him  a  central  figure 
of  his  circle.  And  thus  it  has  come  about 
that  in  our  typical  inland  city,  where  for- 
merly the  gentry  would  appear  in  their  old- 
fashioned  "  broad-cloths,"  with  street  boots 
and  colored  ties,  we  now  see  at  an  evening 
party  seven-eighths  of  the  males  attired  in 
dress  suits  and  the  conventional  wear  on  the 
feet  and  about  the  neck.  This  transforma- 
tion has  arisen  from  the  causes  named,  and 
has  emancipated  the  communities  from  in- 
sular narrowness,  and  given  the  local  life  a 


,  cs  a  1'  ine  Art,  in  the  U.  S.        15 

metropolitan  flavor.  We  might  here  well 
pause  to  inquire  what  moral  effect  has  this 
radical  change  within  a  generation  wrought 
on  the  youth  of  the  community  in  our  mind's 
eye  ?  It  must  be  patent  to  all.  With  the 
majority  of  the  young  men  there  the  dress  suit 
is  the  most  priceless  possession,  for  instead  of 
being  compelled  to  spend  his  evenings  in  beer 
halls  or  billiard  saloons,  or  in  evil  associa- 
tions, he  feels  that  he  can  seek  refuge  in 
ladies'  society,  and  be  on  a  par  with  the 
wealthier  and  more  aristocratic  of  the  town. 
He  feels  that,  so  costumed,  he  is  a  gentleman 
who  must  doff  the  manners  of  the  shop  and 
the  street  for  those  of  refinement  and  the 
drawing-room.  Nor  is  there  any  consider- 
able disproportion  between  this  progress  in 
the  one  particular  mentioned  and  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  standard  of  general  dress  in  such 
communities.  When  sufficiently  cultivated, 
the  young  man  feels  that  his  wear  must  be 
custom  made,  instead  of  a  hap-hazard  selec- 
tion from  those  great  stocks  of  alleged  cloth- 
ing which  flood  the  country  from  establish- 
ments patterned,  as  it  were,  on  the  manu- 
factories of  Birmingham  and  Manchester, 


16        Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  V.  S. 

making  goods  for  the  colonies  with  every  im- 
plication that  the  inhabitants  were  savages. 
One  of  these  suits  of  clothing  suggests  that  a 
bale  of  sham  wool  has  been  thrown  into  a 
hopper  and  that  thirty  seconds  thereafter 
trousers,  coat,  and  waistcoat  pop  forth  from 
the  delivery  all  neatly  pressed  and  folded, 
and  quite  ready  to  adorn  the  rural  frame. 

This  barbarous  prevalence  of  ready-made 
clothing  will,  however,  pacs  away  as  years 
go  on,  as  shams  and  shoddies  disappear 
from  our  social  life,  and  when  that  universal 
nuisance  in  art,  the  "  patentee,"  is  an  obsolete 
factor.  This  tendency  is  already  marked,  for 
who  now  is  seen  wearing  a  paper  collar — 
once  the  pride  of  the  multitudinous  clerk — 
the  wood-pulp  shirt-front,  or  the  cork  hat  ? 
Of  course,  we  are  speaking  of  the  hamlet, 
the  village,  and  the  town,  for  these  inven- 
tions never  invaded  the  better  circles  of  men 
of  the  Atlantic  sea-board '.  The  spread  of 
such  an  invention  in  the  inland  territory  can 
be  accounted  for  on  several  grounds.  First: 
All  of  those  false  proverbs  and  unfortunate 
sayings,  which  come  from  the  average  self- 
made  man ;  and  by  this  we  do  not  wish  to 


Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S.        17 

be  understood  as  speaking  lightly  of  those 
who  have  hewn  out,  with  their  unaided 
hands  and  brains,  their  fortunes  and  their 
fame,  for  they  are  the  true  aristocrats  of 
mankind.  But  there  is  an  idea  in  the 
mind  of  the  hardy  toiler  who  has  risen  to 
wealth  and  influence,  that  to  be  well  and 
artistically  attired  is  to  be  foppish,  shallow, 
and  effeminate.  Severity  in  style,  ill  fit, 
coarse  cloth,  and  well-worn  raiment,  among 
these  men,  usually  deform  a  majestic  carriage 
and  a  strong  and  intellectual  countenance. 
We  consider  this  to  be  the  result  either  of 
neglect  or  affectation.  Should  it  follow  that 

o 

because  the  empty-pated  idler  who  strolls 
our  streets,  on  little  better  than  mechanic's 
wages,  concentrates  all  of  his  thought  on  his 
outward  garb,  that  the  external  appearance  of 
a  commanding  figure  is  not  worthy  of  a  pass- 
ing thought  by  its  possessor?  It  doubtless 
made  Horace  Greeley  notorious  as  he  wished 
to  carefully  adjust  his  well-worn  stock  under 
his  left  ear,  and  distribute  a  shabby  panta- 
loon in  a  cow-hide  boot.  But  how  much 
better  would  he  have  appeared  to  the  eye  and 
to  posterity,  if  he  had  dressed  in  the  clothes 


18        Dressing,  as  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S. 

of  a  gentleman,  and  appeared  among  his  fol- 
lowers with  these  baneful  pretenses  left 
out !  Men  like  Horace  Greeley,  exercising 
as  they  have,  and  do,  a  vast  influence  on 
their  followers,  have  contributed  much  to 
retard  healthful  and  artistic  dressing  in 
America.  Jgnorantly  laboring  against  the 
truism  of  Pope,  that 

"  Dress  makes  the  man  ;  the  want  of  it  the  fellow," 

they  instilled  a  retrograde  movement  as  to 
attire  in  the  rural  mind,  now  happily  passing 
away.  It  would  seem,  too,  that  the  Ameri- 
can intellect,  generally  keen,  active,  and  alert, 
in  its  average  development,  would  have 
learned  at  least  the  commercial  importance 
of  perfection  in  the  style  of  dress  of  this 
commercial  acre.  But  it  has  not,  notwith- 

O  / 

standing  the  very  obvious  fact  that  a  shab- 
bily dressed  man  has  all  the  odds  against 
him  in  the  race  in  life.  Given  two  men,  the 
one  slow  of  thought,  destitute  of  personal 
magnetism,  devoid  of  culture,  yet  a  tastefully 
dressed  manikin,  and  the  other  quick  to 
perceive,  with  strong  powers  of  brain,  and  at- 
tractive physical  gifts,  but  with  ill-suited  and 


Dre&tinj,  a  a  a  Fine  Art,  in  the  U.  S.        19 

noticeably  bad  apparel,  and  in  the  business 
centres  of  finance  or  the  Exchange,  or  the 
busy  marts  of  commerce,  and  the  former  has 
every  advantage,  .reaping  harvest  after  har- 
vest, to  the  dismay  of  the  man  of  manlier 
purpose  and  vigor  and  superior  mental  de- 
velopment. Strange  it  is,  that  this  palpable 
truth  is  ignored  so  widely  in  a  country  whose 
corner-stone  is  the  almighty  dollar.  Leaving 
entirely  out  of  sight  the  many  social  and 
amatory  advantages  which  correct  dressing 
gives  to  the  man,  with  all  of  the  keen  de- 
light of  associations  at  the  club  and  by  the 
fireside,  it  is  often  incomprehensible  that 
clear-headed  men  will  go  ou,  year  after  year, 
in  apparent  ignorance  that  there  is  such  a 
person  as  a  tailor  in  all  the  land.  And  yet 
we  find  it  in  those  very  walks  of  life  where 
it  least  ought  to  be — among  professional  men, 
whose  culture  and  good  taste  most  assuredly 
ought  to  be  beyond  question. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RETROSPECTIVE. ANCIENT    COSTUMES. 

PHILOSOPHERS  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
agree  upon  a  proper  definition  of  the  word 
man,  all  the  forms  so  far  proposed  being  ob- 
noxious to  the  reproach  of  omitting  quite  as 
much  that  is  characteristic  as  they  convey. 
From  Plato's  two-legged  animal  without 
feathers  down  to  the  Wall-street  definition  of 
man  as  a  being  that  sells  short,  there  is  no 
entirely  satisfactory  rendering  of  the  name. 
This  being  admitted,  it  is  not,  perhaps,  too 
much  to  say  that  when  we  define  man  as  a 
creature  able  to  wear  and  to  comprehend  the 
significance  of  dress,  we  have  come  near  to  a 
correct  appreciation  of  his  relative  import- 
ance in  the  universe. 

When  we  observe  the  lower  animals,  we 
find  that,  as  they  approach  the  higher  type, 
they  are  seen  to  take  pleasure  in  personal  ap- 
parel-. The  wild  horse  of  the  plains  of  South 
America,  or  the  steppes  of  Tartary,  has  a  free 
and  noble  bearing ;  but  how  much  more  elo- 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes.  21 

quent  of  developed  intelligence  and  conscious 
personal  worth  is  the  spirited  motion  of  the 
war-horse,  treading  proudly  to  the  martial 
music  and  the  sound  of  his  warlike  trappings, 
and  playing  with  the  ringing  chains  of  his 
bit !  The  distance  between  the  two  is  as 
great  and  as  clearly  defined  as  that  between 
an  Indian  brave  and  the  Prime  Minister  of  a 
great  empire.  Carlyle  has  done  well  to  insist 
on  the  immense  importance  of  clothes  as  an 
expression  of  the  over  soul  in  man ;  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  hints  he  has  thrown  out 
for  a  philosophy  of  this  great  subject  iriay 
one  day  be  expanded  by  some  competent 
thinker,  and  wrought  into  a  harmonious  and 
synthetic  whole. 

All  the  early  records  of  mankind  agree  as 
to  the  probable  origin  of  clothes.  The  prim- 
itive man  is  always  seen  to  be  content  with 
the  fell  furnished  him  by  nature,  even  after 
he  has  learned  to  fabricate  weapons  more  or 
less  rude.  Not  till  he  feels  the  first  dim 
movements  of  taste  awakened  within  him  by 
the  contemplation  of  the  colors  in  the  skins 
of  his  four-footed  fellows  dors  he  begin  to 
think  of  adorning  his  person,  and  strutting, 


22  Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 

like  the  jay  in  the  fable,  in  borrowed  plumes. 
It  may  be  regarded  as  a  settled  point,  that 
the  first  use  of  clothes  was  not  for  warmth  or 
protection,  but  wholly  for  ornamentation,  or, 
in  a  word,  for  dress,  properly  so  called  in 
contradistinction  to  the  secondary  and  deriva- 

* 

tive  purpose  of  clothing  as  a  covering  against 
weather.  A  careful  study  of  the  myths  and 
legends  of  the  race  leaves  no  doubt  on  this 
point.  With  the  skin  the  savage  naturally 
took  to  himself  the  name  of  the  animal  he 
had  stripped ;  and  here  we  come  upon  the 
germ  of  a  true  hierarchy  of  costume,  the  rude 
beginning,  indeed,  of  the  gorgeous  and  com- 
plex court  splendors  of  Egypt  and  Assyria, 
of  Rome  and  of  Byzantium. 

The  earliest  monuments  of  Egypt  show  us 
the  first  steps  tow<ird  a  systematic  attire. 
The  garment  is  but  a  linen  cloth  around  the 
loins,  with  the  skin  of  a  leopard  worn  on  the 
shoulders.  This  was  in  1600  B.  C.  Gradual- 
ly the  dress  becomes  fuller  and  more  elabo- 
rate; and  the  distinctions  of  social  position, 
marked  in  the  earlier  times  by  so  simple  a 
device  as  the  doubling  of  the  linen  folds 

O 

about  the  middle,  are  shown  by  richer  stuffs, 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 


23 


by  various  colors,  by  added  skirts  and  collars. 
The    kino:  was   recognized    by    his    crown, 


called  the  pdient,  often  nearly  resembling  a 
mitre,  and  by  a  triangular  projecting  skirt  of 


24          Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 

leather,  ornamented  with  gold.  The  dress 
of  the  lower  classes  was  chiefly  of  wool,  a 
material  little  used  by  the  higher  orders,  ex- 
cept as  an  outer  covering,  their  robes  being 
mostly  of  byblus,  a  mixture  of  linen  and  cot- 
ton, or  of  linen,  which  the  kings  chose  ex- 
clusively. The  finest  sort  was  known  as 
royal  linen,  and  was  very  high-priced.  In 
the  story  of  Satni-Khamois,  the  couches  and 
beds  of  Thouboui's  palace  are  spread  with 
royal  linen.* 

The  Assyrian  ordinary  dress  was  a  robe 
with  a  long  skirt  and  short  sleeves.  There 
seems  to  have  been  no  essential  difference  in 
the  form  of  the  women's  dress.  Upper  gur- 
ments  were  not  allowed  to  any  below  the 
priestly  rank.  The  king  wore  a  long  robe  or 
skirt,  and  over  this  a  mantle  with  heavy 
fringes.  The  monuments  show  that  the  As- 
syrians possessed  remarkable  skill  in  weaving 
and  embroidering  all  manner  of  stuffs;  and 
the  Bible  is  full  of  allusions  to  the  rich  colors 
and  tracery  of  their  garments,  "exceeding  in 
dyed  attire,  all  of  them  princes  to  look  to." 
The  Phoenicians  undoubtedly  learned  from 

*  Maspero.     Contes  Egyptiens. 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes.  25 

the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  the  arts  of 
dyeing  and  embroidery,  which  they  carried 
to  such  great  perfection,  both  in  their  cities 
on  the  Syrian  coast  and  in  Carthage,  their 
greatest  colony,  and  their  costume,  so  far  as 
we  are  enabled  to  judge  by  the  fragmentary 
remains  of  their  civilization',  seems  to  have 
resembled  the  Assyrian  rather  than  the 
Egyptian  in  its  general  features.  The  Etrus- 
cans, whose  origin  is  still  a  matter  of  uncer- 
tainty, have  so  many  points  of  resemblance 
with  the  Eastern  nations  of  antiquity,  that, 
while  we  cannot  exactly  describe  their  cos- 
tume, we  can  see  that  it  was  in  some  respects 
like  that  of  the  Egyptians,  though  it  is  known 
that  some  features  of  the  Roman  dress,  such 
as  the  togapicta,  the  tunica  palmata,  theprce- 
texta,  and  the  rich  sandals,  were  of  Etruscan 
origin.  The  luxury  of  this  people  was  very 
famous  in  antiquity,  and  they  were  especially 
given  to  indulgences  of  the  table,  with  every 
accompaniment  of  costly  perfumes,  crowns, 
embroidered  couches,  and  rich  robes.  The 
obesi  Etrusci  are  frequently  met  with  in  the 
Roman  poets. 

The   dress   of    the   ancient   Jews    always 


26          Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 

showed  the  influence  of  one  or  the  other  of 
the   great   empires   to   which,   in   turn,   the 
chosen  people  became  subject ;  and  even  in 
the  brief  intervals  during  which  the  nation 
was  politically   independent,   there   was   no 
revolt    from    the   dominant   taste   in   dress. 
There   were   close   under-garments,  with   an 
over-tunic,  worn  by  both  sexes,  the  tunic  be- 
ing much  the   same  as  the  modern  Kaftan 
of  the  East,  with  a  large  outer  mantle,  like 
a  cloak,  gathered  in  at  the  waist  by  a  girdle, 
as  needed ;  and  these  outer  robes  were  often 
ornamented  very  richly.     The  attire  of  the 
priesthood,  and  especially  that  of  the  high 
priest,  was  costly  and  magnificent.    The  mon- 
uments of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  from  which 
we  might  .have  expected  illustrations  of  the 
Jewish  national  costume,  leave  us  very  much 
in  the  dark,  the  Hebrews  figuring  in  these 
records   as  captives,  stripped  of  their  outer 
clothing  and  their  ornaments ;  and  our  real 
sources  of  information  on  this  interesting  sub- 
ject are  the  writings  of  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel. 

One  general  characteristic  marks  all  the 
Oriental  costumes,  both  of  antiquity  and 
of  modern  times — the  flowing  outer  robes, 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes.  27 

which  lend  so  much  dignity  to  the  stature 
and  the  bearing  of  even  the  meanest  man. 
A  garment  so  inconsistent  with  haste  and 
active  physical  exertion  could  only  be  found 
in  countries  and  among  social  organizations 
too  settled  in  manners  and  habits  to  accept 
the  idea  of  business  as  the  chief  end  of  life. 
To  the  Oriental  of  three  thousand  years  ago, 
as  to  the  Turk  or  the  Persian  of  to-day,  the 
day  is  evidently  sufficient  unto  itself,  and 
the  morrow  will  be  like  to-day.  His  kismet, 
or  destiny,  is  written  on  his  forehead,  no  less 
for  this  fleeting  earthly  existence  than  for 
the  future  immortality,  and  he  goes  calmly 
about  his  affairs  with  none  of  the  European 
impatience;  for  he  well  knows  that,  if  not 
this  hour,  then  the  next  will  bring  him  to 
his  journey's  end,  or  to  the  attainment  of  his 
object,  if  it  is  to  be  attained ;  and,  if  it  is  not, 
that  must  be  as  God  pleases. 

The  profound  religious  sense  of  the  East- 
ern races,  and  the  dignity  and  power  of  their 
priesthood,  have  combined  to  give  a  family 
likeness  and  an  unchanging  form  to  their 
national  costumes.  Two  Eastern  races  con- 
tradict this  general  law — the  Japanese  and 


28          Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 

the  Chinese.  The  Japanese  are  now  under- 
going a  rapid  process  of  transformation  in 
habits  of  thought  and  in  manners,  from  the 
contact,  too  suddenly  and  violently  brought 
about,  with  European  ideas  and  modes  of 
life.  What  they  were  in  the  past,  the  Chi- 
nese— their  teachers  and  exemplars — still  are, 
and  are  likely  long  to  be ;  and,  strangely 
enough,  we  find  in  this  extraordinary  people 
a  prevailing  style  of  costume  older,  indeed, 
in  its  origin  than  the  civilization  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  yet  wholly  in.  sympathy  with 
the  business  ideas  and  habits  that  have  so 
greatly  simplified  the  dress  of  modern  Eu- 
rope. A  peaceful,  active,  ingenious,  and  in- 
dustrious people,  the  Chinese  have  found  it 
necessary  to  move  freely  about  their  com- 
mercial and  agricultural  affairs,  to  be  ready 
always  to  thread  their  way  from  one  end  of 
their  vast  cities  to  the  other  through  narrow 
streets  and  jostling  multitudes ;  and  their  in- 
clination to  trade  and  the  affairs  of  life,  a 
natural  outcome  of  their  practical  genius,  has 
been  sharpened  and  stimulated  by  the  com- 
petition forced  upon  every  individual  in  the 
struggle  for  a  livelihood  in  the  midst  of  a 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes.  29 

population  so  vast.  To  be  unincumbered  in 
his  movements  was,  therefore,  the  first  neces- 
sity for  the  Chinese,  and  no  costume  known 
among  men  so  entirely  leaves  the  wearer 
free  in  all  his  motions  as  the  easy,  firmly-fast- 
ened shoes,  the  loose  yet  close  trousers,  and 
the  short  outer  shirt,  with  open  neck,  almost 
universal  among  the  people  of  China.  Yet 
the  Chinese  are  well  aware  of  the  advan- 
tage to  be  derived  from  a  rich  and  stately 
official  costume;  and  their  great  dignitaries 
and  wealthy  men  could  hold  their  own  for 
splendid  and  appropriate  dress  in  any  Court 
of  Europe  or  the  East. 

The  classical  costume  of  Greece  and  Home 
is  familiar  to  every  one,  in  the  reproductions 
of  the  statues  and  works  of  art  that  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  in  the  numberless 
paintings,  the  works  of  great  artists,  like  Ge- 
rome  and  Alma  Tadema,  that  have  brought 
before  us  the  scenes  of  Roman  and  Greek 
daily  life.  One  feature  is  common  to  the 
classical  costume  and  the  Oriental — the  gene- 
ral, flowing  outline,  which  shows  that  the 
wearer  is  master  of  his  own  time,  and  im. 
pelled  by  no  stern  necessities  to  personal  ac- 


30          Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes. 

tivity.  For  the  Greek  and  the  .Roman  the 
business  of  life  was  to  meet  in  the  public 
places,  to  discuss  the  political  and  military 
events  of  the  day,  to  hear  Pericles  or  Cicero 
explaining  or  attacking  a  line  of  policy,  or 
pleading  his  own  cause,  to  be  borne  in  his 
litter  or  his  chariot  to  a  great  feast,  or  to 
order  the  purchase  of  a  villa  or  a  family  of 
slaves.  The  work  of  the  classical  world  was 
done  by  the  slaves ;  and  the  citizens  were, 
practically,  nobles, "  administering,  through 
agents,  estates  more  or  less  important.  To 
such  men  personal  ease  was  inseparable  from 
the  idea  of  freedom,  as  opposed  to  the  condi- 
tion of  those  on  whom  lay  the  burden  of 
daily  toil;  and  the  flowing  costume  was, 
therefore,  the  privilege  and  the  badge  of 
nobility.  The  indignation  and  disgust  of 
Augustus  Caesar  when,  seeing  the  Forum 
crowded  with  workingmen  and  slaves  in 
their  short  garments,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
typical  Roman  toga,  he  broke  out  with  the 
line  from  Virgil, 

En— 

Bomanos  rerum  dominos,  gentem  que  togatam  ? 
"Are  these  your  Romans,  lords  of  the  world  and  the  men 
of  the  toga  ?» 


Retrospective. — Ancient  Costumes.  31 

show,  as  in  a  photograph,  the  gulf  between 
the  Roman  citizens,  whose  care  was  empire, 
and  the  toiling  multitude  below  them. 

The  toga  was  to  hold  its  place  for  a  good 
while  after  this ;  but  the  distinctive  garment 
of  the  Europeans  of  to-day,  the  trousers,  had 
already  come  into  view  as  a  part  of  respect- 
able attire  in  the  third  century.  This  part 
of  the  costume  was  familiar  to  the  Romans 
as  peculiar  to  the  Gauls  and  Germans ;  but 
its  adoption  by  the  conquering  race  dates 
from  the  wars  with  the  Persians,  to  whom 
also  this  form  of  dress  was  national. 

After  the  fall  of  the  Empire,  it  is  not  easy 
to  trace  the  general  styles  of  costume  in 
Western  Europe.  The  Eastern  Empire  main- 
tained and  developed  almost  a  new  system 
of  civil  costume,  by  adopting  ideas  from  the 
Oriental  world,  and  combining  the  Persian 
costume  with  the  Roman ;  but  in  the  West, 
after  the  temporary  revival  under  Charle- 
magne, the  distinctive  Roman  costume  dis- 
appeared from  the  general  view,  remaining 
local  in  some  parts  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  III. 

MEDIAEVAL   COSTUMES. 

THE  rise  of  feudalism  brought  in  entirely 
new  ideas  on  costume  in  civil  life.  In  the 
Church,  however,  the  traditions  of  antiquity 
survived  and  underwent  comparatively  slight 
changes  under  the  influence  of  the  new  social 
organization. 

The  monastic  orders  used  much  the  same 
form  of  dress,  with  sufficient  differences  of 
color  and  head-dress  to  make  the  order  of 
the  wearer  recognizable.  The  Universities 
had  also  their  special  costumes,  generally 
long,  flowing  gowns,  with  capes  and  hoods, 
the  same,  at  first,  for  the  doctors  and  the 
bachelors,  though  later  on  a  distinction  was 
established  between  the  dresses  of  the  two. 

Under  the  feudal  system,  the  dependence 
of  the  vassals  was  marked  by  the  form  of 
dress,  or  by  some  badge  worn  either  em- 
broidered or  painted  on  the  stuff  of  the  outer 
dress,  or  in  the  shape  of  a  collar.  Further 
devices  came  in  with  the  growth  of  indus- 


MedicBval  Costumes.  33 

tries,  and  the  rise  of  the  great  trading  towns. 
The  guilds  of  merchants  and  manufacturers 
took  as  much  delight  in  the  science  of  her- 
aldry as  the  feudal  lords,  and  with  the  sense 
of  their  power  and  importance,  as  they  in- 
creased in  wealth,  asserted  their  dignity  by 
the  wearing  of  appropriate  devices  and  em- 
blems. The  variety  in  style  and  design  of 
dress  was  a  characteristic  of  the  communities 
in  which  feudalism  had  most  firmly  taken 
root.  Thus,  the  cities  of  Northern  and  Central 
Italy,  where  feudalism  had  almost  no  represen- 
tation in  the  presence  of  the  municipal  tradi- 
tions of  antiquity,  never  at  any  time  really 
extinct,  made  a  less  splendid  display,  in 
this  respect,  than  the  cities  of  Germany,  Flan- 
ders and  France ;  and  it  is  in  the  monuments 
of  these  countries  that  what  is  properly  called 
mediaeval  costume  is  to  be  studied.  In  Eng- 
land there  are  interesting  memorials  of  dress 
from  the  Anglo  Saxon  period  down  to  the 
present  time.  The  dress  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
was  composed  of  a  tunic,  generally  short, 
partly  open  at  the  sides,  and  confined  about 
the  waist  by  a  girdle.  Over  this  was  worn 
a  mantle  or  cloak.  The  legs  were  covered 


34:  Mediaeval  Costumes. 

with  drawers  fitting  close  to  the  lower  leg, 
like  hose,  which  were  ornamented  by  bands 
crossed  like  those  of  Malvolio  in  the  play. 
Extra  mantles  were  added  against  the  sever- 
ity of  the  weather,  and  a  hood  covered  the 
head 

The  Normans  introduced  a  richer  style  of 
costume,  but  they  adopted  also  the  tunic  and 
amplified  it.  They  extended  also  the  use  of 
rich  and  costly  furs  on  their  outer  garments. 

A  type  of  the  richest  form  of  the  modified 
Norman  dress  is  seen  in  the  monument  of 
King  John,  in  Worcester  Cathedral.  He  is 
represented  here  as  clad  in  a  loose  tunic, 
reaching  to  his  ankles.  The  sleeves  are  tight 
on  the  arms.  Over  this  tunic  is  a  full-sleeved 
crimson  dalmatic,  richly  embroidered  with 
gold,  and  held  about  the  waist  by  a  girdle,  with 
a  long  pendant  end.  The  mantle  worn  over 
these  hangs  down  the  back,  and  is  gathered 
about  the  right  arm.  The  hose  are  red,  and 
the  boots  black,  with  knightly  spurs  of 
gold.  This  costume  was  essentially  the  one 
worn  by  the  knights  and  nobles  of  the  period. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  military 
spirit  which  made  war  the  only  fitting  em- 


Mediaeval  Costumes.  35 

ployment  of  a  well-born  man,  showed  itself 
as  much  in  the  wearing  of  armor,  even  in 
time  of  peace,  as  in  the  love  of  heraldic  devices 
and  badges  for  the  retainers  of  the  baron, 
and  most  of  the  effigies  on  the  tombs  of  the 
Middle  Ages  are  represented  dressed  as  if  for 
war,  The  growth  of  luxury,  and  the  taste  for 
refinements  in  life,  which  came  in  with  the 
later  Crusades,  after  the  Western  warriors  had 
become  acquainted  with  the  higher  Saracen 
civilization,  display  their  influence  as  markedly 
in  the  comparative  disuse  of  the  warlike  cos- 
tume as  in  the  introduction  of  more  costly 
stuffs  and  forms  of  attire  directly  traceable 
to  Eastern  ideas.  These  changes  lead  the  in- 
quirer out  of  the  Middle  Age,  into  the  most 
picturesque  period  of  European  costume,  the 
Sixteenth  Century. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

AT  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century 
there  is  apparent  in  Europe  a  movement  of 
change  in  the  variety  and  in  the  character  of 
the  costumes.  In  great  part  this  is  due  to 
the  changed  conditions  of  warfare  consequent 
on  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  and  its  ap- 
plication to  fire-arms.  The  shields  and  coats 
of  plate  and  of  mail  were  more  and  more  seen 
to  be  an  incumbrance  and  an  additional 
danger  to  the  wearer,  and,  though  they  were 
still  worn  at  times  by  individuals,  and  even 
by  bodies  of  troops,  there  was  a  growing  be- 
lief in  their  uselessness,  and  a  conviction  that 
their  day  was  over.  With  the  defensive 
armor  went  the  modifications  of  costume 
that  had  grown  out  of  its  use  as  the  recog- 
nized mark  of  knighthood  and  gentle  birth, 
and  there  was  a  tendency  toward  the  assimi- 
lation of  the  civil  and  the  military  dress,  in 
their  main  features.  With  the  defensive 
armor  there  went  also  the  comparative  im- 


The  Sixteenth  Century.  37 

portance  of  the  knights  in  battle.  The  Swiss 
and  the  Spanish  infantry  became  the  main 
strength  of  the  army,  and  the  last  apparent 
reason  for  the  maintenance  of  the  feudal 
organization  of  society  was  called  finally  in 
question.  Many  of  the  infinite  subdivisions 
of  caste  in  civil  life,  each  one  marked  by  its 
peculiar  and  invariable  style  of  dress,  disap- 
peared, one  after  another,  as  the  burghers  be- 
came more  important  and  gathered  into  their 
body  men  who  sought  the  security  of  the 
towns  and  the  protection  of  the  growing 
guilds.  The  handicrafts  tended  to  coalesce 
as  they  were  more  or  less  intimately  con- 
nected, and  the  members  of  a  guild,  pursuing 
related  industries,  became  known  by  a  similar 
style  of  costume.  The  increase  of  wealth,  and 
its  wide  diffusion,  had  even  a  more  important 
influence  upon  dress,  for  nothing  is  more 
democratic  or  leveling  than  wealth.  What 
the  upper  classes  wear,  the  men  of  an  inferior 
class  will  aim  at  wearing,  as  they  obtain  com- 
mand of  means.  The  only  serious  obstacle' 
in  the  way  of  a  more  rapid  unification  of  the 
social  elements  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  the  still  defiant  atti- 


38  The  Sixteenth  Century. 

tilde  of  feudalism,  which  made  every  effort  to 
maintain  the  existing  institutions ;  but  the 
active  forces,  the  spirit  of  adventure,  the 
thirst  for  discovery,  the  restless  commercial 
enterprise,  were  all  against  it.  The  tendency 
was  toward  the  breaking  up  of  the  arbitrary 
divisions  in  society,  and,  consequently,  against 
the  divergences  in  costume  which  made  of 
each  class  a  kind  of  community  by  itself. 
The  dress  of  modern  times,  the  dress  which 
to-day  marks  the  civilized  man  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  may  be  said  to  have 
come  in  with  the  sixteenth  century.  M.  Paul 
Lacroix  (le  bibliophile  Jacob)  in  his  valu- 
able history  of  this  period,  writes  as  follows : 
"  We  find  that  a  distinct  separation  between 
ancient  and  modern  dress  took  place  as  early 
as  the  sixteenth  century.  In  fact,  our  present 
fashions  may  be  said  to  have  taken  their 
origin  from  about  that  time.  It  was  during 
this  century  that  men  adopted  clothes  closely 
fitting  to  the  body — overcoats  with  tight 
sleeves,  felt  hats  with  more  or  less  wide 
brims,  and  close  boots  and  shoes.  The 
women  also  wore  their  dresses  closely  fitting 
to  the  figure,  with  tight  sleeves,  low-crowned 


The  Sixteenth  Century.  39 

hats,  and  richly  trimmed  petticoats.  These 
garments,  which  differ  altogether  from  those 
of  antiquity,  constitute,  as  it  were,  the  com- 
mon type  from  which  have  arisen  the  endless 
varieties  of  modern  male  and  female  dress ; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  then  that  fashion  will 
be  continually  moving  backward  and  for- 
ward from  period  to  period,  sometimes  re- 
turning to  its  original  model,  and  sometimes 
departing  from  it."  The  styles  of  dress  in 
this  century  were  the  same  throughout  Eu- 
rope. We  have  but  to  look  over  a  collection 
of  portraits,  whether  of  Englishmen,  French- 
men, Spaniards,  or  Flemings,  to  recognize  the 
same  features  of  dress,  and  even  the  same 
style  of  beard  and  hair  in  the  one  country 
that  we  find  in  the  other.  The  portraits  of 
the  Elizabethan  period,  the  heads  of  Shake- 
speare, Spenser,  Raleigh,  and  Bacon,  give  us 
the  costume  in  all  its  stateliness  and  dignity. 
Wherever  seen,  it  is  of  Italian  origin,  but  is 
most  rightly  characterized  as  Spanish,  since 
its  general  adoption  was  a  consequence  of  the 
Spanish  preponderance  in  the  world  during 
the  century.  The  costume,  briefly  described 
in  its  main  points,  was  as  follows :  The  lower 


The  Sixteenth  Century. 


limbs  were  encased  in  tight  hose ;  the  trunk 
hose,  which  met  the  other  at  the  middle  of 


the  upper  leg,  were  puffed ;  the  jacket,  open 
in  front,  met  the  trunk  hose  at  the    hips ; 


The  Sixteenth  Century.  41 

over  this  was  worn  a  doublet,  short,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  century,  but  in  the  Eliza- 
bethan time  made  long  and  close  to  the  body, 
and  carried  down  to  a  peak ;  and  over  all  the 
short  cloak,  which  Raleigh  laid  down  in  the 
mire  that  the  Virgin  Queen  might  pass  over 
dry-shod.  About  the  neck  was  the  large  cir- 
cular ruff,  that  lends  so  much  distinction  to 
the  famous  heads  of  the  time.  There  was 
almost  no  difference  between  the  ruffs  worn 
by  the  men  and  those  of  the  women.  The 
limited  use  of  the  word  hose,  as  applied  to- 
day, dates  from  the  fashions  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  As  then  used,  the  word  signified 
the  upper  slashed  and  puffed  covering  of  the 
leg,  while  the  name  stocking  meant  the  tight 
covering  of  the  lower  part  of  the  leg.  In 
time  a  second  name,  breeches,  was  applied  to 
what  had  been  called  hose,  and  this  word 
came  to  be  regarded  as  synonymous  with 
stockings.  The  head-coverings  varied  in 
form  and  style,  from  the  low,  flat  cap  worn 
by  Henry  VIII  to  the  large-brimmed,  high- 
crowned  hat  seen  in  most  of  the  well-known 
pictures  of  Elizabeth's  time. 

The  modifications   of  this  costume,  intro- 


42  The  Sixteenth  Century. 

duced  by  national  taste  and  cast  of  mind, 
are  entertainingly  described  by  M.  Lacroix,  in 
the  work  already  quoted :  "  In  Italy,  for  ex- 
ample, dress  always  maintained  a  certain 
character  of  grandeur,  ever  recalling  the  fact 
that  the  influence  of  antiquity  had  not  been 
altogether  lost.  In  Germany  and  Switzerland 
garments  generally  had  a  heavy  and  massive 
appearance,  and  in  Holland  more  so.  Eng- 
land uniformly  studied  a  kind  of  instinctive 
elegance  and  propriety.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  Spain  invariably  partook  of  the 
heaviness  peculiar  to  Germany,  either  because 
the  Gothic  element  still  prevailed  there,  or 
that  the  Walloon  fashions  had  an  especial 
attraction  for  her,  owing  to  associations  and 
general  usage.  France  was  then,  as  she  is 
now,  fickle  and  capricious,  fantastical  and 
wavering,  not  indeed  from  indifference,  but 
because  she  always  was  ready  to  borrow  from 
any  quarter  whatever  pleased  her.  She 
never  failed,  at  the  same  time,  to  put  her  own 
stamp  on  what  she  adopted,  so  as  to  make  it 
essentially  French,  even  when  borrowed  from 
Spain  or  Germany,  Italy  or  England." 

This  lively  passage  is  truthful,  in  the  main, 


The  Sixteenth  Century.  43 

though,  perhaps,  M.  Lacroix  would  have  come 
nearer  to  the  fact  if,  instead  of  describing  the 
German  and  the  Spanish  styles  as  heavy,  he 
had  recognized  them  as  grave.  It  seems  to 
be  evident  that  it  is  rather  the  Spanish 
gravity  he  is  aiming  at,  as  a  complement  to 
the  French  fickleness. 

Of  the  luxury  in  dress  at  this  period  there 
are  abundant  illustrations.  The  Field  of  the 
Cloth  of  Gold  was,  indeed,  an  occasion  when 
splendor  and  a  lavish  expense  were  in  a 
measure  called  for.  The  nobles  in  attendance 
upon  two  young  sovereigns  so  remarkable 
for  personal  accomplishments  as  Henry  the 
Eighth  and  Francis  the  First  must  have  felt 
it  to  be  a  duty  to  display  their  finery,  at 
whatever  cost ;  but  there  are  many  proofs 
that,  in  more  than  one  country,  there  was  a 
wasteful  style  of  dress  and  personal  expendi- 
ture which  excited  the  anxiety  of  thought- 
ful statesmen.  Sumptuary  laws,  so  repeat- 
edly proved  to  be  powerless  against  the  im- 
pulses of  vanity  and  ostentation,  were  enacted 
in  every  country  to  restrain  the  taste  for 
luxury;  As  in  most  cases  of  legislation  on 
matters  properly  belonging  to  the  domain  of 


44  The  Sixteenth  Century. 

private  authority,  the  laws  covered  too  much 
ground,  and  treated  as  excessive  what  was  not 
really  more  than  unostentatious  adornment. 
A  decree  of  Philip  the  Second,  in  answer  to 
a  petition  from  the  Cortes  of  Madrid,  in  1568, 
is  worth  quoting  as  an  instance  of  the  style 
of  legislation  in  these  matters,  the  rather  that 
this  king,  who  bears  such  an  evil  name  in 
history,  was,  in  the  matter  of  public  and 
private  expenditure,  liberal  and  wise  to  a 
very  uncommon  degree.  The  edict  reads: 
"  We  ordain  likewise  that  no  one,  of  any 
condition  or  quality  whatever,  shall  wear  on 
his  clothing,  his  doublet,  or  trunk-hose,  or  vest, 
nor  suffer  to  be  put  upon  the  housings  or 
trappings  of  any  mule  or  horse,  any  species 
of  embroidery  or  stitched  work,  or  ruffling, 
or  metal  plates,  or  spangles,  or  bugling,  or 
plaited  or  twisted  silk,  or  edgework,  or 
back- stitching,  or  threading  of  gold  or  silver, 
or  silk,  or  other  material,  even  though  the 
gold  and  silver  be  false,  etc." 

In  matters  of  this  kind  men  will  judge  and 
act  for  themselves,  and  it  is  but  an  exception 
when  the  political  authority  is  able  to  enforce 
compliance  with  arbitrary  prohibitions,  like 


The  Sixteenth  Century.  45 

those  of  Calvin  in  Geneva,  or  the  Puritans  in 
the  early  days  of  New  England.  The  increase 
of  wealth  in  a  nation  must  show  itself  in  the 
amount  of  thought  bestowed  upon  costume, 
and  the  consequent  elevation  of  the  standard 
of  refinement,  for  these  two  things  act  and  re- 
act upon  each  other;  nor  is  there  any  in- 
stance in  history  of  a  highly-refined,  intel- 
lectual and  cultivated  people,  indifferent  to 
dress,  or  inclined  to  look  upon  elegance  of 
costume  as  a  matter  to  be  neglected.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  in  this  form  that  taste  be- 
gins to  show  itself  as  a  people  makes  advances 
in  material  prosperity.  It  could  not  well  be 
otherwise,  unless  the  nature  of  man  under- 
went a  fundamental  change.  The  social  in- 
stincts assert  themselves  with  a  power  pro- 
portioned to  the  opportunities  offered  for 
their  gratification,  by  the  ease  and  comfort  of 
which  men  find  themselves  possessed.  En- 
tertainments, public  and  private,  dinners, 
balls,  parties  of  pleasure,  and  the  like,  bring 
people  together  for  mutual  enjoyment,  and 
eveiy  one  must  seek  to  do  honor  to  the  oc- 
casion and  to  the  friends  he  is  to  meet,  by 
donning  an  attire  that  shall  make  him  appear 


46  The  Sixteenth  Century. 

at  his  best.  If  civilization  be  anything  but  a 
name,  it  is  certainly  as  natural  and  as  in- 
stinctive in  man  as  any  of  the  confessedly 
natural  appetites,  since  it  is  but  the  develop- 
ment of  the  instinct  of  selection. 

Men  choose  what  seems  to  them  the  best ; 
and  the  first  use  of  a  command  of  means  is 
to  apply  it  to  improving  and  beautifying  the 
daily  life  by  adding  to  the  forms  of  beauty 
which  surround  it.  Everything  which  makes 
objects  of  daily  use  more  pleasing  to  the  eye 
shows  an  advance  toward  a  higher  ideal  of 
comfort  and  of  taste ;  and  whatever  may  be 
thought  of  their  comparative  value  on  the  field 
of  battle,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  so  far 
as  civilization  is  concerned,  the  Sybarites  were 
altogether  higher  than  the  Spartans.  The 
history  of  England  during  the  century  under 
consideration  bears  testimony  to  the  very 
great  progress  of  the  national  taste  in  dress, 
so  far  as  the  employment  of  more  costly 
materials  is  concerned.  The  energy  and 
vigor  with  which  the  English  entered  upon 
their  enterprises  beyond  the  sea,  and  their 
attempts  at  planting  colonies,  their  wars  with 
Spain,  which  stimulated  and  heightened  the 


The  Sixteenth  Century,  47 

pride  and  self-confidence  of  the  nation,  and 
the  activity  of  their  commerce,  were  not  more 
remarkable  than  the  sudden  intellectual  and 
artistic  flowering  of  their  genius.  They  dis- 
played their  power  in  every  field  of  activity ; 
and  their  domestic  economy,  which  had  so  re- 
cently disgusted  the  cultivated  taste  of  Eras- 
mus, began  to  wear  that  attractive  look  of 
cleanliness  and  repose  which  it  has  never  since 
resigned. 

The  floors  were  no  longer  covered  with  the 
foul  rushes  that  concealed  the  bones  and 
scraps,  but  were  spread  with  rich  and  beauti- 
ful carpets;  the  windows  were  carefully 
glazed,  and  the  rooms  were  furnished  with 
the  finest  tables  and  chairs,  made  of  the  rare 
woods  brought  from  beyond  the  sea.  The 
presence  of  books  and  works  of  art,  in 
many  a  home  of  the  middle  class,  showed  an 
appreciation  of  the  best  results  of  civilization 
not  common  in  similar  dwellings  on  the  Con- 
tinent ;  and  the  inmates  of  these  houses  were 
clad  in  garments  every  way  suited,  for  rich- 
ness of  material  and  artistic  fitness,  to  their 
surroundings.  It  would  be  an  error  to  sup- 
pose that  the  upward  movement  in  these  im- 


48  The  Sixteenth  Century. 

portant  matters  was  confined  to  the  highest 
classes.  The  whole  nation  was  advancing 
with  an  equal  front,  and  there  has  probably 
been  no  period  in  English  history  at  which 
the  general  condition  of  the  people  was,  on 
the  whole,  so  fairly  prosperous.  We  may 
look  back  upon  the  Sixteenth  Century  as  the 
time  when  the  decisively  progressive  move- 
ment toward  a  simplified  ideal  of  manly 
costume  began  in  England,  which  has  ever 
since  that  period  held  the  foremost  place  as 
the  arbiter  of  taste  in  this  matter. 


CHAPTER    V. 

ENGLISH    INFLUENCE    ON    AMERICAN    DRESS. 

THE  most  marked  feature  in  the  perfec- 
tion in  the  highest  forms  of  American  dress- 
ing, as  applied  to  the  man,  is  the  emphatic 
influence  of  English  styles  and  conceits  run- 
ning through  every  branch  of  the  wardrobe, 
whether  for  lounging  costume,  street  attire, 
or  the  more  carefully  designed  garments  for 
dress  occasions.  Yet,  strongly  pronounced 
as  this  influence  is,  the  fashions  that  reign  in 
America  are  undoubtedly  conglomerate ;  that 
is,  while  partaking  in  all  of  the  individual 
characteristics  of  the  methods  and  traditions 
of  Albion,  they  unite  many  subordinate  feat- 
ures from  the  varying  nationalities  peopling 
our  shores — thus  giving  a  distinctively  new 
cut  and  trimming  to  the  garment,  which 
marks  its  wearer,  wherever  found  over  the 
world.  This  American  tendency,  while  fol- 
lowing no  immutable  law,  is  very  largely 
governed  by  climate,  and  by  the  rapid,  ex- 


50       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

citing,  bustling  life  led  on  the  Western  Con- 
tinent. 

In  all  matters  of  dress,  as  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  one  promi- 
nent fact  stands  out — English  heaviness  and 
American  lightness,  and  the  appearance  of 
both  when  the  reality  does  not  exist.  Take 
the  average  Englishman — his  stauncli  frame, 
ample  feet,  healthy  contour,  and  high  color — 
and  you  will  perceive  a  solidity  in  the  make- 
up of  his  clothes,  a  sense  of  the  durable,  the 
non-tearable,  a  feeling  of  utility  throughout,  in 
which  artistic  lines  and  decorative  work  are 
entirely  secondary.  Yo;i  are  sure  a  rain- 
storm or  a  good  ducking  would  not  send 
him  post-haste  to  his  tailor  with  a  new 
order.  He  is  dressed  upon  lines  that  defy 
the  elements,  and  he  is  not  afraid,  however  he 
walks,  sits,  or  reposes,  or  whatever  his  phys- 
ical action,  that  he  will  fall  to  pieces  like  the 
harlequin  in  the  play.  His  boots  have  broad 
and  substantial  heels  and  are  of  heavy  calf- 
skin, or  otherwise,  as  the  case  may  be,  and 
are  designed  for  longevity,  not  beauty,  while 
the  hat  follows  the  same  general  law.  Now 
note  the  American  moving  in  a  parallel  cir- 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       51 

cle  at  home,  and  who  is  not  afflicted  with 
that  form  of  Anglomania  which  causes  him 
to  follow  English  styles,  purely  in  the  vein 
of  abject  and  ignorant  imitation,  and  you  will 
find  him  physically  a  lighter  man,  smaller 
boned,  wirier,  with  a  certain  swiftness  of 
walk,  a  hurried,  nervous  manner — a  being,  in 
fine,  suited  to  this  bracing  atmosphere,  and 
conscious  that  dress  is  a  powerful  social 
factor  in  America,  an  almost  free  passport  to 
a  general  acquaintanceship  at  sight,  if  he  can 
bear  out  his  title  to  respectability  and  good 
address.  With  him  we  find  a  boot  made  for 
the  foot's  shape,  a  considerable  heel,  and  a 
laborious  quality  of  instep-architecture  which 
tells  the  story  that  he  is  a  rider  in  chaises 
and  not  a  walker.  Then  his  silk  hat  is  al- 
most one-half  as  light  as  that  of  his  English 
cousin,  while  every  suggestion  of  his  garments 
is  that  the  ornamental  dominates  the  use- 
ful. The  snug  fit,  the  lighter  quality  of  fab- 
ric, the  absence  of  lounging  ease,  and  the 
ever-buttoned  coat  to  the  regulation  form, 
just  suits  the  national  temperament,  as  we 
watch  our  well-dressed  Amtrican  on  his 
saunter — no,  walk — up  Fifth  avenue;  for 


52       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

Englishmen  saunter,  and  Americans,  arrow- 
straight,  are  conscious  of  eye-fascinations  cre- 
ated by  the  outer  man. 

The  distinctions  we  here  make  cannot  be 
offensive  to  either  nationality,  for  they  are 
true  from  whatever  point  of  view,  and  are 
demonstrated  in  whatever  we  find  in  the 
fine  or  mechanic  arts  of  the  two  countries. 
For  example:  England,  in  her  monuments, 
statuary,  paintings,  and  architecture,  formu- 
lates the  idea  of  the  bold  and  massive ;  some- 
thing for  time  and  wear ;  something  that 

cr*  '  o 

will  keep  long  alive  this  period  of  her  history, 
as  creations  of  former  epochs  delight  and  in- 
struct this  age  to-day.  Her  buildings  are 
sunk  in  deep  foundations,  and  the  permanent 
granite  blocks,  which  rise  in  simple  forms,  tell 
the  story  that  remote  ages  will  find  them  as 
perfect  as  when  first  they  rose  against  the 
sky.  All  of  the  outward  and  visible  life  of 
that  people  partake  of  the  same  characteristics 
— in  their  carriages,  locomotives,  household 

O         '  ' 

furniture,  and  even  with  journals  and  reviews 
and  periodicals  we  note  the  same  idea  of  per- 
manency. It  is  thus  that  a  man  who  finds 
his  daily  walk  in  Fleet  street,  and  not  in 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       53 

Broadway,  is  filled  with  the  ever-pervading 
feeling  of  the  enduring,  of  moving  in  a  world 
that  is  not  of  yesterday,  to-day,  and  to-mor- 
row alone,  and  amid  surroundings  where  a 
foothold  has  been  made  that  will  remain 
until  all  things  perishable  shall  merge  into 
the  common  ruin !  Were  London  a  city  of 
internal  revolutions,  subject  to  the  devasta- 
tions of  armed  mobs,  like  Paris,  and  given 
over  under  fitful  dynasties  to  great  build- 
ing fevers,  to  the  tearing  down  and  re- 
constructing on  modern  lines,  as  Baron 
Haussmann  did  to  Paris,  the  French  capital, 
under  the  Third  Empire,  it  is  possible  that 
outward  London,  taking  on  a  new  stony 
garb,  might  change  the  habitual  thought  of 
the  English  people,  as  we  have  observed  in 
some  of  the  larger  Continental  capitals  within 
the  present  generation.  It  is  true  that  there 
has  been  some  vandalism  of  recent  date  in 
the  sweeping  away  of  ancient  historic  land- 
marks like  Temple  Bar,  but  they  are  hardly 
worthy  of  notice  in  this  great  city  of  the 
world  now  housing  nearly  5,000,000  of 
people. 

How  different  all  this  to  the  changes  in 


54       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

New  York,  even  in  a  decade !  Rushing  from 
one  school  of  architecture  to  another,  build- 
ing thirteen  stories  in  the  air,  having  a  cha- 
teau from  the  Loire,  a  palace  from  Unter  den 
Linden,  a  castle  from  Warwickshire,  a  cha- 
let from  Lake  Como,  Moorish  facades  from 
Andalusia,  and  Kiosque  forms  from  the 
Orient — what  modern  whim  from  the  arts  will 
not  the  American  embrace  \  And,  following 
out  this  inquiry  to  its  legitimate  conclusion, 
do  we  not  find  a  disposition  to  draw  from 
parallel  fountains  of  perfection  in  other  arts, 
and  notably  in  the  art  of  dressing  ?  Do  we 
not  find  the  American  making  a  composite 
fashion,  coming  from  all  peoples,  which,  as 
generations  roll  by,  must  become  the  dominant 
one  among  men  ?  Can  it  be  supposed,  more- 
over, that,  in  the  great  dress  reform  move- 
ment that  must  ultimately  sweep  over  the 
world,  America,  stripped  of  its  provincialism, 
and  susceptible  to  influence  from  whatever 
clime  and  people,  will  not  be  the  most  fitting 
and  impressionable  nation  to  lead  the  van  ? 
Let  us,  in  the  light  of  these  facts  and  queries, 
mark  the  general  influence,  in  fact  an  abso- 
lute and  easily  measurable  one,  which  Eiig- 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       55 

land  lias  had  on  these  United  States  during 
those  years  since  the  civil  war.  Primarily, 
all  that  there  is  in  this  art  of  dressing  in  the 
United  Kingdom  proceeds  from  London.  It 
is  in  the  Metropolis  that  the  tailor  starts 
his  propaganda  which  reaches  from  John 
O'Groat's  to  Land's  End,  and  ultimately 
through  the  clubs,  travelers,  diplomatic  corps, 
and  pioneer  cutters,  as  far  as  the  Asiatic 
possessions  of  the  Czar ;  for  it  is  incontro- 
vertible that,  in  the  present  age  of  cylindrical 
wear,  so  to  speak,  the  fashions  are  made  by 
the  London  artist.  There  is  a  popular  de- 
lusion that  the  Court,  and  particularly  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  has  only  to  appear  in  a  gar- 
ment, however  grotesque  in  pattern,  and  all 
clubland  will  speedily  follow.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  so,  although  the  crown  circles  have 
a  reasonable  and  a  legitimate  influence  over 
the  male  wardrobe ;  but,  when  the  Prince 
and  his  coteries,  some  years  ago,  essayed  to 
proclaim  anew  the  era  of  blue  coats  and  brass 
buttons,  the  up-start  craze  died  in  its  own 
incubation.  Mighty  as  may  be  the  fiat  of  this 
lofty  personage,  and  mysterious  the  charms 
of  the  recognized  social  autocrat  of  the  dy- 


56       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

nasty,  English  gentlemen  would  not  retro- 
grade in  dress,  even  in  the  face  of  such  a 
mandate,  and  the  brazen  suit  lay  fallow  and 
died.  It  had  a  brief  life  in  New  York  and 
other  American  cities,  and  the  genial  Sam 
Ward,  even  up  to  his  latest  moments,  never 
appeared  in  any  other  garb  than  the  doomed 
evening  wear  of  less  than  a  score  of  years 
ago. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ENGLISH    INFLUENCE    ON    AMERICAN    DRESS. 
(CONTINUED) 

WHO,  it  may  be  asked,  are  arbiters  of 
style,  going  away  down  to  the  very  founda- 
tions ?  With  the  fair  sex,  it  is  easy  enough 
to  answer.  It  may  be  an  Empress,  with  every 
resource  of  historic  inventive  art  to  aid  a 
naturally  gifted  mind  and  eye,  a  refined 
sense  of  the  beautiful,  and  a  splendid  con- 
ception of  and  feeling  for  color,  and  with  an 
abundant  purse  to  carry  out  the  day-dreams 
of  a  poetic  temperament — those  visions  of 
gown,  bonnet,  and  slipper,  at  the  Tuileries, 
Cornpiegne,  Fontainebleau,  and  Longchamps. 
So  it  may  be  a  hapless  Camille,  the  story  of 
whose  wondrous  life  fills  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  and  thrilling  places  on  the  modern 
stage ;  a  Bernhardt  with  her  gloves,  a  Langtry 
with  her  hose,  and  a  Judic  with  her  corsage 
low.  Herein  are  the  celebrities  tyrants  as 
absolute  as  Shahs,  and  the  dress-makers  and 
milliners  slaves  in  a  bondage  as  abject  as 


58       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

the  former-time  serf  of  the  Czar.  The  dis- 
tribution of  fashion's  prerogatives,  since  the 
ex  Empress  Eugenie  ceased  to  reign,  how- 
ever, has  been  among  competent  leaders, 
although  that  imperial  lady  was  the  greatest 
of  her  time.  Casting  our  eyes  backward,  we 
find  no  such  potent  figure  in  the  feminine 
kingdom  since  light-hearted  Marie- Antoinette 
reigned  over  the  coiffures,  the  drapery,  and 
the  foot-wear  of  fashionable  Europe  ;  and 
when  those  two  great  lights  went  out  for- 
ever— one  on  the  guillotine  in  the  Palace  de 
la  Revolution,  and  the  other  in  the  agony  of 
widowhood  at  Chiselhurst,  to  be  closely  fol- 
lowed by  the  death  of  her  own  boy-prince 
— there  came  that  dispersion  of  styles  ren- 
dered emphatic  by  the  leadership  of  women 
made  conspicuous  in  other  ways.  But  men, 
at  least  in  civil  life,  are  not  thus  led.  It  is 
in  London  that  we  probe  this  query  to  the 
ultimate  source ;  for  no  instructed  mind  in 
this  age  will  deny  that  in  male  attire  the 
idea  and  general  outline,  however  modified 
subsequently,  proceed  from  the  brains  and 
experience  of  the  artist-tailor  of  that  metrop- 
olis. Let  us  say,  too,  that  some  superfine 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       59 

people  may  be  disposed  to  sneer  at  the  word 
artist-tailor.     Why  should  they?     Here  we 


have  our  sculptor,  setting  about  to  make  a 
shapely  human  figure      What  does  he  do  ? 


60       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

He  masses  the  requisite  quantity  of  clay,  and 
with  his  hands  fashions  it  into  rough  pro- 
portions, and  then,  with  calipers,  dividers, 
and  other  measuring  instruments,  he  works 
to  the  exactness  of  outline  required  by  the 
sketch-form  which  he  copies.  It  is  the  eye 
and  the  yard-stick,  after  all ;  and  it  is  no 
more,  no  less,  with  the  tailor.  Likewise 
should  it  be  known  that  no  eminent  sculptor 
ever  considers  a  draped  figure  perfect,  or 
ready  for  critical  inspection,  before  he  calls 
in  a  quick-eyed  and  experienced  craftsman 
from  the  cutter's  board.  A  further  fact  is, 
that  a  cutter  of  exceptional  gifts  and  stand- 
ing can  earn  more  money,  at  wage,  than  the 
average  sculptor,  all  over  the  world.  He 
must  needs  know  the  imperfections  of  one's 
physique  almost  at  a  glance,  without  letting 
their  unhappy  possessor  be  aware  of  his  in- 
telligent scrutiny ;  he  must  plot  out  in  his 
mind  the  best  method  to  cover  them  up. 
While  preserving  the  conventional  lines  and 
seams  of  the  prevailing  fashion,  he  must,  to 
be  explicit,  make  out  of  an  awkwardly  put 
together  man,  who  has  a  slatternly  gait  and 
a  jointless  carriage,  a  fair  imitation  of  the 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       61 

true  Adonis,  without  hurting  his  patron's 
feelings.  Look  at  that  man  yonder! — the 
scion  of  an  ancient  Manhattan  house — with  an 
income  beyond  the  dream  of  want,  an  uncon- 
querable ambition  to  be  thought  handsome 
in  form,  careful  in  dress,  and,  withal,  irre- 
sistible at  the  shrine  of  Venus.  He  is  not 
ill-looking,  you  proclaim,  with  your  mascu- 
line dictum ;  and  the  ladies  along  the  ave- 
nue, they  say  :  "  Isn't  he  too  lovely  for  any- 
thing ?"  Yet,  simple  mortals !  that  is  not  a 
God-made  man  you  see ;  it  is  a  tailor-made 
man.  Invade  the  sanctity  of  his  chamber 
when  the  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting 
day,  and  the  mysteries  of  this  alert  divinity 
stand  revealed  before  you.  Shall  the  picture 
be  etched — the  limbs,  the  chest,  the  should- 
ers and  their  knifey  blades?  Nay!  There 
lie  the  secrets  of  the  shop ! 

The  absolute  fixedness  of  the  tradition  that 
an  English  gentleman  must  have  his  own 
private  tailor  prohibits  him  from  patroniz- 
ing the  great  establishments  that  sell  ready- 
made  wear.  No  untoward  financial  outlook 
will  cause  a  well-dressed  Briton  to  sway  from 
this  habit  of  a  life-time.  The  curious  feature 


62       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

of  it  is,  too,  that  lie  always  adheres  to  the 
same  shop  which  has,  perhaps,  been  patron- 
ized for  generations  by  his  family.  Reasons 
in  abundance  exist  for  this  loyalty  to  the 
same  house ;  but,  as  will  be  obvious,  it  is 
often  a  mistaken  course,  for  the  craftsman- 
ship changes,  as  do  the  directors  and  manner 
of  doing  business.  Still,  there  is  a  social 
flavor  given  to  the  man,  who  cannot  obtain 
it  otherwise,  by  mentioning,  in  a  careless 
manner,  that  he  had  left  an  order  at  Poole's. 
It  is  well  known  to  all  worldly  men  that  this 
deceased  autocrat  exercised  a  dominion  in 
England  of  no  mean  dimensions.  Furnishing 
the  funds  to  Louis  Napoleon  to  maintain  his 
quasi-dignity  as  an  Imperial  prince  in  exile, 
he  had  more  to  do  in  bringing  about  the 
early  days  of  the  French  Empire  than  many 
dream.  This,  and  the  patronage  of  the 
Crown,  the  herding  of  the  nobility  to  his  shop 
in  Sackville  street,  gave  him  at  least  an  as- 
sumed importance  which  made  the  exotic 
man  marvel.  This  was,  all  queer  on  any  rea- 
sonable grounds,  illustrated  thus :  An  Amer- 
ican gentleman  of  commanding  physique  en- 
tered his  shop  one  morning  and  said : 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       63 

"  I  wish  to  get  measured  for  some  clothes. 
I  am  in  a  hurry." 

"  Your  introduction,  if  you  please !"  said 
the  trim  manager,  with  a  bow  quite  at  right- 
angles  with  the  perpendicular. 

The  American  eyed  him  contemptuously, 
and  with  a  gesture  of  impatience,  drawing 
forth  his  morocco  envelope,  he  exhibited  a 
roll  of  £50  Bank  of  England  notes,  saying: 

"  Here  are  my  letters  of  introduction." 

"They  will  not  go  here,  sir!"  replied  he 
decisively,  when  the  would-be  customer  ex- 
hibited his  card  as  the  accredited  United 
States  Consul- General  to  an  Oriental  capital. 
He  demurred  again,  and  the  disgusted  diplo- 
mat, with  a  choice  volley  of  accentuated  al- 
lusions to  sheol  and  its  viceroy,  departed. 

This  custom  of  the  house  alluded  to,  wide- 
spread as  it  is,  and  now  employed  among  the 
best  merchant  tailors  of  New  York,  is  not 
snobbery,  as  it  would  naturally  appear  on  the 
surface  and  to  the  unthinking.  To  be  plain, 
it  is  simply  wise  mercantile  precaution,  as  the 
author  has  tested  many  times  in  New  York, 
London,  and  Paris.  A  high  class  of  business 
could  not  be  done  without  a  safeguard  like 


64       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

this.  To  illustrate,  an  unknown  gentleman 
enters  a  shop  and  gives  a  cash  order  for  a 
suit  of  clothes,  without  revealing  his  identity 
or  pecuniary  responsibility.  They  are  made 
and  paid  for.  Subsequently  he  goes  again, 
and  obtains  a  second  suit  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances. After  a  time  he  orders  several 
hundred  dollars  worth  of  clothes,  with  orders 
to  send  them  to  his  address.  They  are  made, 
and  despatched  "  Collect  on  delivery,"  but 
the  customer  pleads  for  time,  or  is  indignant. 
In  this  case  it  is,  perhaps,  policy  to  mollify 
him  and  extend  the  credit,  running  the  risk 
of  eventual  payment  rather  than  have  the 
garments  thrown  back  on  the  maker's  hands, 
because  then  he  could  not  dispose  of  them  at 
one-quarter  their  charged  value.  Thus  it 
will  be  readily  seen  that  a  merchant  selling 
only  the  higher  class  of  articles,  and  dealing 
with  gentlemen,  and  those  of  responsibility, 
wishes  to  know  for  whom  he  is  making 
clothes.  It  is  more  important  to  him  than 
ready  cash  sales  to  those  who  consider  steady 
patronage  as  an  implied  favor  to  the  tailor, 
who  must  in  return  extend,  from  pure  grati- 
tude, hazardous  credit  for  large  amounts. 


English  Influence  on  American  Dress.       65 

When  English  reign  in  dress  began  to  be 
felt  in  America,  shortly  before  the  close  of  the 
civil  war,  the  male  costume  on  this  side  of 
the  water  presented  some  curious  incon- 
gruities. The  author  found  himself  one 
among  several  Englishmen  only  who  had 
come  to  New  York  for  permanence.  The 
field  seemed  large,  the  growth  of  a  better 
taste  rapid,  and  a  wish,  where  there  was  a 
way,  to  use  only  the  best  fabrics  to  adorn  the 
body.  The  outlook  was,  moreover,  very  en- 
ticing from  another  standpoint :  The  Ameri- 
cans were  willing  to  pay  high  prices,  and 
consequently  every  device  known  to  the 
tailor's  skill  and  invention  was  brought  into 
requisition  to  make  elegant  and  attractive 
clothes,  some  of  which  exist  to-day,  while 
the  others  have  gone  out,  let  us  hope,  for- 
ever. Then  came  the  period  of  the  built-out 
shoulders  and  padded  chest,  which  gave  to  a 
consumptive  sapling  the  appearance  of  a 
diminished  Hercules,  whose  spring-bottom 
trousers  were  borrowed  from  the  aquatic 
fevers  which  were  then  the  expensive  tastes 
of  the  wealthier.  White  duck  suits  and 
cream-colored  wear,  both  of  which  have  a 


66       English  Influence  on  American  Dress. 

history,  were  spasms  of  the  era,  and  traces  of 
them  may  yet  be  seen  among  those  who  have 
been  reduced  to  the  last  stitch  of  a  once 
opulent  wardrobe.  But  however  these  facts, 
those  of  the  English  method  in  New  York 
soon  found  that  it  was  on  the  cards  to  make 
the  gentlemen  of  this  city  the  best  dressed  in 
the  world  ;  and  so  they  are,  beyond  all  ques- 
tion, to-day.  They  pay  for,  demand,  and  get, 
the  finest  skill  in  cutting,  the  best  workman- 
ship, trimmings  of  the  rarest  quality,  and 
only  such  clothes  as  are  used  at  the  highest 
courts  of  Europe.  And  this  has  been  one  re- 
sult of  English  influence  on  American  dress. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CYLINDRICAL    CLOTHES. 

IT  is  a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  assign  a 
certain  date  to  the  origin  of  the  cylindrical 
garment  which  we  call  trousers,  for  the 
farther  back  we  push  our  researches  into  the 
history  of  wearing  apparel,  the  more  are  we 
made  to  see  that  some  dawning  of  the  shape 
has  flitted  before  the  eyes  of  men,  at  times,  in 
every  land  under  the  sun.  Again  and  again 
it  appears  as  if  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians, 
the  Babylonians,  were  on  the  point  of  seizing 
finally  the  great  idea,  and  giving  to  it  a  per- 
manent form  as  a  constituent  part  of  their 
national  costume.  But  the  history  of  this  great 
discovery  was  not  to  be  added  to  the  long 
roll  of  the  conquests  of  Kameses  or  Assur- 
banipal.  The  captives  that  stand  stripped 
and  huddled  together  before  the  great  king, 
on  the  walls  of  the  temples  and  on  the  ala- 
baster slabs,  seem,  indeed,  at  times  to  wear, 
for  their  only  covering,  what  suggests  the 


68  Cylindrical  Clothes. 

future  distinctive  and  typical  portion  of  the 
costume  of  civilized  man;  but  it  is  only  a 
suggestion,  and  passes  as  it  came. 

It  is  not  in  the  Nile,  nor  in  Mesopotamia, 
that  we  find  the  genesis  of  this  article.  An- 
cient Persia  possessed  the  form,  and  succeeded, 
when  under  Sapor  she  divided  with  Rome 
the  supremacy  of  the  world,  in  imposing  it 
upon  the  haughty  empire.  How  far  the 
invention  of  the  cylinder  belonged  to  Persia 
is,  however,  matter  of  doubt,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  the  garment  was  rather  an 
inheritance  from  the  prehistoric  Aryans,  than 
a  discovery  wrought  out  by  a  later  thinker 
in  an  organized  Oriental  society,  where  the 
accepted  ideal  of  manly  attire  was  the  long 
tunic  or  robe  with  its  flowing  lines.  This 
extreme  antiquity  seems  the  more  likely,  that 
we  find  the  far  western  kinsmen  of  the  an- 
cient Persians,  the  Germans  and  the  Gauls, 
equally  in  possession  of  this  significant 
shape,  at  a  period  when  history  barely  knows 
their  names,  and  records  them  as  those  of 
barbarous  and  untamable  tribes.  The  cap- 
tives represented  on  the  column  of  Trajan 
wear  trousers ;  and  the  true  Anglo-Saxon 


Cylindrical  Clothes.  69 

word  breeches  is  but  an  English  form  of  the 
Irish  and  Gaelic  name  for  the  Gaulish  gar- 
ment. 

The  Chinese  undoubtedly  invented  their 
own  breeches;  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
attribute  to  them  the  communication  of  the 
idea  to  the  West,  for  China  has  never  entered 
into  the  general  movement  of  the  world's 
history  until  in  recent  days,  and  forms  almost 
literally  a  world  by  itself,  as  much  isolated 
from  the  rest  of  the  globe  as  if  it  were  part 
of  another  planet. 

We  are  forced  back  upon  the  conclusion 
that  the  inventor  of  this  part  of  dress  is,  like 
the  inventor  of  the  alphabet,  or  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  plough,  absolutely  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  inquirer.  His  work  speaks  for 
him,  or,  at  least,  it  lives  and  moves  for  him, 
wearing  always,  under  whatever  imperfect 
shape  a  bungling  artist  may  have  given  it, 
some  portion  of  a  likeness  to  the  finished 
beauty  of  outline  which  floated  only  before 
the  imagination  of  the  mind  that  conceived  it, 
to  become  a  palpable  reality  only  when  the 
fulness  of  time  had  brought,  with  advancing 
science  and  more  fully  developed  resources, 


70  Cylindrical  Clothes. 

the  artistic  intelligence  and  culture  needed  to 
fix  the  idea  forever. 

It  is  only  the  first  step  that  is  dimcult, 
says  the  proverb.  This  applies  to  all  inven- 
tions as  to  every  form  of  labor;  but  it  is 
equally  true,  that  no  discovery  is  perfect  in 
the  shape  first  given  to  it.  To  see  the  fitness 
of  means  to  ends,  is  in  itself  an  intellectual 
step  that  implies  activity  and  nimbleness  of 
mind ;  but  there  is  hardly  less  activity  called 
for  in  the  amplification  of  a  simple  idea  to 
make  it  stand  by  its  own  strength.  It  was 
a  great  thing  to  have  seen  that  man,  himself 
a  collection  of  pipes  and  cylinders  enclosed 
in  an  outer  cylinder,  might  best  be  attired 
in  cylindrical  garments,  and  one  cannot  but 
be  struck  by  the  wonderful  instinct  of  genius 
in  the  unknown  inventor  of  the  trousers,  who 
sprang  forward  mentally,  so  to  speak,  across 
the  gap  of  centuries,  to  create,  when  society 
could  hardly  be  said  to  have  an  organization, 
a  form  at  once  typical  of  and  indispensable  to 
the  most  complex  and  elaborate  civilization. 
"Measure  a  great  period,"  says  Emerson, 
"  by  the  comparative  lack  of  elevation  of  any 
one  man  above  the  rest." 


Cylindrical  Clothes.  71 

How  towering,  measured  by  this  rule,  is 
the  height  of  the  unknown  genius  we  are 
considering !  He  put  forth  his  idea,  and  not 
to  wholly  inattentive  rninds,  for  it  was 
adopted  and  made  familiar;  but  the  ages 
slowly  rolled  away,  and  there  came  no 
second  intellect  to  develop  and  modify  the 
first  rude  form.  Men  were  contented  with 
the  cylinder  of  cloth,  or  linen,  or  cotton,  or 
skins,  provided  only  it  covered  the  leg  and 
was  fastened  about  the  ankle.  Grace,  fitness, 
delicate  adaptation  to  the  peculiarities  of  the 
wearer,  no  one  of  these  things  could  come  to 
the  thought  of  the  earlier  followers  of  the  great 
discoverer.  What  was  done  seemed  to  them 
sufficient,  and  they  went  on  fabricating  and 
wearing  their  breeks,  or  breeches,  or  trousers, 
through  the  long  ages  of  monotonous  style, 
until  the  artist,  the  thinker  in  cloth,  was 
found.  It  is  noticeable  how  little  the  artists, 
of  a  day  even  so  late  as  that  of  Holbein, 
seem  to  care  for  the  possibilities  of  nobleness 
that  lie  in  the  undeveloped  breeches.  A 
study  of  the  illustrations  made  by  this  great 
master  on  the  margin  of  his  copy  of  the 
Encomium  Morice  of  Erasmus  shows  how 


72  Cylindrical  Clothes. 

entirely  he  missed  the  wonderfully  suggest- 
ive future  in  the  shape  of  this  garment. 
All  through  the  Middle  Ages  we  find  the 
same  inadequate  treatment  of  the  nether 
covering. 

That  most  popular  story  of  the  time,  the 
"Adventures  and  Jests  of  Tyll  Owlglass" 
(Eulenspiegel),  certainly  not--  less  popular 
than  the  HeineJce  Fuchs,  presents  the  trousers 
always  in  the  burlesque  and  ridiculous  man- 
ner which  betrays  in  a  folk-book  the  popular 
conception  of  the  subject.  It  might  be 
thought  that  this  point  of  view  was  natural 
in  the  less  enlightened  times  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  and  in  the  back- 
ward North;  but  what  is  to  be  said  of 
Rabelais,  great  genius  and  profound  scholar 
as  he  was?  Surely,  even  his  royal  license, 
as  lord  of  the  springs  of  wise  and  thoughtful 
mirth,  had  taken  too  little  note  of  the  serious 
element  in  the  history  and  unfolding  of  the 
great  subject.  For,  after  all,  what  is  more 
suggestive  of  manly  dignity  and  power,  what 
more  indispensable  to  an  impressive  and 
kingly  bearing  before  the  world,  than  legs 
sufficiently  attired  and  equal  to  the  support 


Cylindrical  Clothes. 


73 


of  the  chest — the  house  of  courage,  and  the 
head — the  dome  of  intelligence  and  re- 
flection? 


BUILT  OUT  SHOULDERS  AXD  SPRING  BOTTOMS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   TRUE    ARTIST-TAILOR. 

SEVENTY  passages  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  always  connected  with  the  subject 
matter  of  this  book,  have  taught  the  author 
that  on  either  side  of  the  great  pond  there 
are  those  who  fashion  the  clothes  of  men 
in  a  conscientious  and  honorable  spirit,  not 
less  earnest  and  painstaking  than  the  labor 
of  the  painter  or  sculptor  in  his  effort  to 
please  the  eye.  But  the  designer  of  wear 
has  an  additional  task,  not  imposed  on  him 
who  deals  in  clay  or  pigments.  With  beauty 
he  is  bound  to  combine  comfort  and  durabil- 
ity, with  the  vexatious  knowledge  that  his 
skill  must  soon  disappear  by  the  attrition 
of  constant  action  and  the  inevitable  decay 
of  the  fabric.  Is  it  not  fair,  then,  to  place 
the  accomplished  tailor,  deeply  instructed  in 
the  mysteries  of  his  craft,  in  close  proximity 
to  the  sculptor,  who  follows  conventional 
forms  and  fashions  inelastic  figures?  We 
think  all  will  concede  that  it  requires  no 


The  True  Artist-Tailor  75 

mean  perceptive  powers  to  follow  all  of  the 
sinuous  curves  of  the  human  body,  fill  out 
their  defects,  give  an  easy  setting  to  the  ap- 
parel, and  supply  a  wanted  chic  to  the  pose 
of  the  man  himself.  Yet  such  is  the  office  of 
the  cutter  in  any  first-class  house  of  this  day ; 
and  right  royally  is  he  paid,  too,  often  as  high 
as  $5,000  a  year,  considerably  in  excess  of  the 
salary  of  the  President  of  Yale  College  and 
the  highest  professors  in  other  celebrated 
institutions  of  learning  here  and  abroad. 

Tailors,  therefore,  who  prove  their  attain- 
ments, command  an  exclusive  and  wealthy 
patronage,  particularly  in  New  York,  where 
the  liberality  of  patrons  permits  the  maker  to 
secure  only  the  finest  workmanship.  Time 
was  when  waistcoats  were  provided  with 
cotton  backs,  but  now  these  will  not  do,  and 
silk  has  taken  the  place.  This  and  other  in- 
novations constantly  appear,  in  order  to  main- 
tain the  high  standard  compelled  by  high 
prices.  But  there  is  a  limit  to  the  embel- 
lishment of  a  true  gentleman's  wear ;  for, 
while  elegance  is  sought,  the  limit  must  be 
drawn  at  the'  tasteful  outline  of  fashion  with- 
out extremes,  never  descending  to  the  odd  or 


76  The  True  Artist-Tailor. 

bizarre,  or  suggesting  that  most  odious  of  all 
spectacles  in  cloth — vulgar  ostentation.  Here 
it  might  be  well  to  ask,  "  Who  is  a  well- 
dressed  man  ?"  Is  he  that  flamboyant  biped 
with  blazing  scarf,  patent-leather  shoes,  and 
glittering  jewelry,  swaggering  up  Fifth 
Avenue  beside  a  comely  dame,  his  nostrils 
dilating  with  surcharged  pride,  attacking  the 
harmless  atmosphere  with  his  gold-headed 
stick  while  meandering  through  the  gaping 
pedestrians  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  ?  Witness 
his  make-up,  for  his  fair  companion  is  close 
at  his  elbow,  with  a  smile  of  sweet  content- 
ment and  a  facial  notification  to  her  sister 
promenaders,  as  much  as  to  say,  in  plain 
English,  "  Match  him  for  a  gentleman  if  you 
can !"  Scrutinize  him  closely.  You  observe 
that  his  hat  is  exaggerated  in  form,  the  po- 
made glistens  on  his  hair  and  whiskers  like 
the  sheen  on  polished  porphyry ;  his  shoulders, 
built  out,  give  him  a  breadth  of  beam  re- 
quiring a  swath  through  the  crowd  ample 
for  two  of  his  natural  kind ;  his  waist  is  drawn 
in  by  corsets,  his  legs  to  the  ankles  are  shaped 
like  inverted  cones,  while  the  shoes,  with 
their  heels  close  to  the  ball  of  the  foot,  cause 


The  True  Artist-Tailor.  77 

this  work  of  art  to  amble  along  with  visible 
pain  and  difficulty.  Now,  is  this  man  dressed 
like  a  gentleman,  for  one  of  birth  he  will  show 
you  he  is,  by  the  mention  of  his  family,  and 
by  the  exhibition  of  his  parchments  ?  Un- 
happily, such  a  figure,  not  over-drawn  either, 
has  often  been  seen  on  our  thoroughfares,  at 
the  opera,  and  in  fashionable  assemblies,  and 
the  ladies  think  him  an  artist  in  his  attire,  one 
bold  enough  to  consult  the  arts,  and  alto- 
gether too  beautiful  to  behold.  It  is  a  fact, 
also,  that  many  ladies  of  the  highest  circles, 
and  despising  the  effeminate  man,  would 
court  this  outre  creature  rather  than  one  of 
quiet  apparel.  Herein,  for  effect  on  the  other 
sex,  men  who  adhere  to  the  characteristic 
modesty  of  the  true  gentleman  in  attire  are  at 
a  considerable  disadvantage;  for,  as  women 
dress  for  women,  men  aress  for  men  and 
women.  Only  the  affected  and  the  eccentric 
go  to  the  length  of  the  curiosity  just  de- 
scribed. 

Therefore,  the  assumption  must  be  plain  to 
the  reader,  that  the  well-dressed  man  is  one 
whose  garments,  ornaments,  and  head  and 
foot  wear,  are  such  that  he  would  not  attract 


78  The  True  Artist-Tailor. 

general  attention  by  any  staggering  peculiar- 
ity of  his  garb.  Herein  is  the  true  secret  of 
the  art  of  dressing,  and  he  who  has  not  yet 
learned  this  lesson  is  several  grades  down  in 
social  culture. 

By  attracting  attention  to  one's  clothes,  it 
is  not  meant  to  be  understood  that  a  well- 
dressed  man  is  not  noticeable,  for  most  as- 
suredly he  is,  to  the  cultivated  and  artistic  eye, 
and  to  every  tailor  who  knows  his  business. 
Even  when  the  cloth  be  not  fine  in  quality, 
the  cut  and  set  of  his  apparel  will  be  the 
striking  feature  at  once.  Hence  let  it  be  said 
that  simplicity,  without  display,  in  all  the 
varied  costumes,  those  for  morning,  walking, 
evening,  full  dress,  riding,  hunting,  and 
yachting,  should  be  the  feeling  throughout. 
You  must  say, "  he  is  perfectly  dressed,"  with- 
out exactly  knowing  the  reason  why, — what- 
ever his  physical  deformities  or  attenuations. 
How  often  do  we  see,  in  mixed  assemblies, 
for  instance,  a  gifted  and  brilliant  fellow, 
through  whose  wretchedly  cut  suit  the  ex- 
perienced eye  of  the  tailor  can  detect  an 
almost  perfect  form,  true  to  the  lines  of  the 
Apollo  Belvidere,  and  yet  there  he  is,  mis- 


The  True  Artist-Tailor.  79 

sliapen,  ugly  in  outline,  shrunken  here  and 
bulging  there,  all  due  to  machine-made 
clothes.  Yonder  in  the  porch  is  another. 
How  the  ladies  admire  his  svelte  figure,  his 
graceful  carriage  and  showy  build.  And  yet, 
Dlace  these  two  men  side  by  side,  nude,  and 
what  the  contrast  in  the  flesh ! — the  God- 
made  man  and  the  tailor-made  man.  But 
when  the  former  can  be  appropriately  dressed, 
we  then  indeed  have  perfection.  Such  an  in- 
stance is  the  pride  of  every  true  artist  in 
cloth,  for,  if  he  be  true  to  his  art,  he  will  not 
countenance  its  degradation ;  he  will  not,  to 
please  a  patron,  make  sloppy  or  grotesque 
garments;  nor  will  he  permit  to  go  forth 
from  his  shop  any  article  of  wear  which 
will  injure  his  professional  standing. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ELEVATED    STANDAED    OF     TASTE    AND    WOEK- 
MANSHIP. 

The  author  could  name  hundreds  of  cases 
within  his  own  experience  where  he  has  been 
forced  to  decline  to  execute  orders  for  ridicu- 
lous patterns  of  wear  from  patrons  of  celebrity, 
on  two  continents,  simply  because  he  would 
not  consent  to  debase  an  art  only  perfected 
after  years  of  careful  workmanship  and  zeal- 
ous study  and  observation ;  and  it  should  here 
be  laid  down  as  an  inflexible  law,  by  every 
honest  tailor,  that  no  patron  should  be  al- 
lowed to  depart  with  a  suit  of  ill-fitting 
clothes,  under  any  circumstances.  This  is  a 
duty  which  is  owing,  not  only  to  the  cus- 
tomer, but  to  the  craft  itself;  and  it  matters 
not  what  may  be  the  conceit  of  the  patron, 
the  outside  world  is  certain  to  credit  the 
garment  as  worn  by  an  ass  and  fabricated  by 
a  fool.  Nor  should  pecuniary  gain  for  a 
moment  hamper,  or  in  any  way  influence  the 


Elevated  Standard  of  Taste.  81 

mind  of,  the  maker  and  designer,  for  such 
mistaken  acquisitiveness,  in  the  long  run,  is 
a  losing  game. 

In  laying  down  this  principle  to  those 
young  in  the  business,  and  who  are  ambi- 
tious, not  only  of  gain,  but  of  repute  for  high 
artistic  excellence,  it  is  well  to  observe 
that  the  production  of  finished  clothing  to 
man's  measure  involves  a  keen  eye,  a  large 
constructive  and  inventive  faculty,  and  a  gen- 
eral following  of  prevailing  styles.  There  is 
a  satisfaction  greater  than  the  compensating 
dollars,  to  the  cutter  and  fitter  who  can  point 
out  a  well-dressed  man  on  the  avenue,  and 
say,  "  That  is  my  work !" 

When  Americans  first  began  to  perceive 
that  the  fashions  came  from  London,  it  was 
odd  to  observe  a  man  order  and  pay  for  a 
hundred  dollar  suit  of  clothes,  and  have  the 
rest  of  his  wear,  for  example,  about  the  neck, 
of  the  crudest  kind.  It  was  the  habit  of  one 
of  the  first  of  the  old-time  fashionable  tailors 
of  New  York  to  keep  on  hand  a  supply  of  col- 
lars and  neckties  and  scarfs  to  place  on  cus- 
tomers who  came  to  be  measured  for  a  new 
suit  of  clothes.  He  was  inflexible  about  this, 


82  Elevated  Standard  of  Taste. 

and  lost  many  orders  by  his  despotic  man- 
date. But  now  this  has  nearly  all  passed 
away,  and  the  American  begins  to  have  a 
wardrobe  something  on  the  same  scale  as  the 
Englishman  of  quality.  It  may  be  taken  as 
a  fact,  however,  that  where  the  American 
buys  six  suits  a  year  the  Englishman  buys 
twelve.  Take  the  average  London  club-man. 

O  / 

with  or  without  title,  and  he  delights  in  ac- 
cumulating vast  quantities  of  clothes  adapted 
to  special  uses  and  vaiying  occasions.  His 
array  of  boots,  hats,  bags,  canes,  and  um- 
brellas^  would  fit  out  a  respectable  shop.  This 
comes  from  the  ability  and  habit  to  have  a 
valet — a  personage  who  is  not  very  popular 
as  yet  with  the  young  and  able-bodied  Amer- 
ican. Perhaps  this  may  be  because  our  leis- 
ure class  is  very  limited  as  yet,  and  further- 
more, when  one  finds  himself  the  fortunate 
possessor  of  inherited  wealth,  instead  of  giv- 
ing himself  entirely  over  to  the  varieties  of 
dress,  he  proceeds  to  expend  the  major  por- 
tion of  his  time  in  multiplying  his  already 
ample  dollars.  Still,  the  rich  youth  of  New 
York  and  other  American  cities  are  the  class 
depended  on  by  the  first-class  tailors  to  sup- 


Elevated  Standard  of  Taste.  83 

port  high  style  and  to  give  liberal  orders,  keep- 
ing closely  up  with  the  more  advanced  move- 
ments in  the  old  world.  Were  tailors  left 
dependent  on  those  past  middle  life  or  in  de- 
clining age,  the  Americans  would  be  a  poorly 
attired  people.  There  seems  to  be  a  gravita- 
tion toward  carelessness  in  this  respect  as  the 
average  American  grows  older,  and  even  as  he 
grows  richer.  That  there  is  a  somewhat  fine 
philosophy  drawn  here  is  doubtless  true,  for 
the  opulent  citizen  may  be  prone  to  mentally 
asseverate  "  I  can  afford  to  dress  as  I  please ; 
I  will  despise  the  pomps  of  the  day."  Such, 
perchance,  was  the  argument  of  the  late  A.  T. 
Stewart,  who  used  to  sit  in  his  office,  at 
Broadway  and  Chambers  streets,  in  a  well- 
worn  suit  of  rusty  broadcloth,  without  the 
sign  of  jewel  or  ornament  of  any  kind,  while 
his  humblest  clerk  would  be  radiant  and 
spruce  in  such  wear  that  it  was  evident  he 
had  to  stint  his  stomach  to  adorn  his  back. 
The  true-artist  tailor  cannot  but  look  upon 
examples  of  the  kind  of  the  celebrated  mer- 
chant prince  as  exceedingly  pernicious,  and 
as  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  exceedingly 
narrow  sham.  Here  was  Mr.  Stewart,  who 


84  Elevated  Standard  of  Taste. 

was  a  magnificent  patron  of  art,  who  pro- 
claimed his  nice  and  discriminating  taste  by 
purchasing  all  the  richest  stuffs  from  all  of 
the  markets  of  the  world — a  dealer  whose 
stock  was  thousands  of  times  richer  and  more 
varied  than  the  magnificent  goods  which  went 
to  the  Venetian  market  in  the  palmy  days  of 
the  mediaeval  carnivals ;  and  yet  he  played 
the  part  of  austerity  in  personal  dress — a 
part  quite  as  wearisome  as  great  care  and 
thought  over  the  daily  costume. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THOSE  WHO  SHOULD  LEAD  THE  FASHIONS. 

Leaving  a  type  of  men  of  whom  Mr.  Stew- 
art was  a  forcible  example,  it  is  well  to  let 
professions  and  public  officials  of  the  country 
pass  in  review. 

On  all  sides  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  a 
professional  man,  be  he  lawyer,  editor,  au- 
thor, doctor,  minister,  artist,  sculptor,  or  li- 
brarian, fine  address,  and  consequently  fine 
dress,  is  of  the  supremest  importance.  Not 
that  foppery  is  to  be  tolerated,  but  apparel  of 
the  first  quality  would  not  only  augment  his 
income,  add  to  his  personal  dignity,  but 
would  tell  wonderfully  with  the  ladies,  who 
have  so  much  to  do  with  shaping  his  ca- 
reer. There  is  a  certain  class  of  professional 
men  who  think  all  that  is  necessary  is  clean- 
liness, and  that  too  much  attention  to  the 
outer  man  betrays  a  mental  weakness  which 
might  influence  those  concerned  in  making 
his  reputation  to  believe  that  such  might  be 
the  main  purpose  of  his  existence.  Yet  the 


86       Those  who  should  Lead  the  Fashions. 

successful  practitioners  of  the  law  and  medi- 
cine have  seen  that  no  small  measure  of  their 
triumphs  has  come  by  being  presentable — 
that  is,  by  so  following  the  styles  that  there 
could  be  no  suggestion  of  shabbiness  on  the 
one  hand,  or  loudness  on  the  other.  While 
all  of  the  professions  sin  mightily  against  the 
laws  of  dress  at  this  moment,  still  within  a 
very  few  years  there  has  been  a  very  rapid 
advance  for  the  better.  Take  the  literary 
guild  as  an  example.  Years  ago  a  writer  of 
power  and  attainments  was  a  slouchy  indi- 
vidual with  unkempt  hair,  soiled  garments, 
and  rusty  externals  generally.  Now  and 
then  we  found  an  exception,  as  in  the  late 
N.  P.  Willis,  but  the  exceptions  were  not 
many.  Since  that  period  the  multiplication 
of  clubs,  the  movement  to  and  fro  across  the 
sea,  and  the  increased  income  to  be  derived 
by  literary  toil,  and  the  actual  founding  of 
an  American  school  of  literature,  have  all 
contributed  to  make  the  author,  pamphleteer, 
and  journalist,  a  sight  Her  figure,  to  be  fur- 
ther improved  in  outward  aspect,  let  us  hope, 
as-  time  rolls  on.  Nor  should  we  deny  to  the 
far-reaching  and  powerful  stage  its  iust  meed 


Those  who  should  Lead  the  Fashions.      87 

of  recognition,  in  the  perpetual  and  intelli- 
gent stimulus  it  has  lent  to  the  spread  of  the 
fine  art  of  dressing  among  men  and  women. 
The  hero,  the  walking  gentleman,  and  the 
refined  villain  cast  in  the  noisome  surround- 
ings of  squalor,  poverty,  and  crime,  have  an 
excellent  chance  to  exhibit  all  of  the  fine 
points  of  dressing ;  and,  executed  as  these 
costumes  are,  with  infinite  pains,  and  reaching 
every  branch  of  the  wardrobe  of  a  gentle- 
man, the  impression  made  on  the  beholder  is 
strengthened  by  the  dramatic  action,  the 
memorable  situations  and  plot,  and  the  power 
of  the  piece  itself.  It  is  not  contended  that 
the  walking  gentleman  of  the  stage  is  an  ap- 
propriate copy  for  the  street  or  drawing- 
room,  owing  to  the  inevitable  heightening  of 
effects  before  the  foot-lights ;  still,  the  artistic 
feeling  and  display  are  before  the  eye,  and 
have  had  no  inconsiderable  directing  force  in 
teaching  mankind  to  dress  better. 

From  what  has  been  said,  we  think  it  not 
too  much  to  add  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
true  artist-tailor,  as  circumstances  permit,  to 
instill  into  the  minds  of  the  gentlemen  of  the 
professions  the  absolute  necessity  of  superi- 


88       Those  who  should  Lead  the  Fashions. 

ority  over  others  in  the  daily  raiment.  In 
the  first  place,  their  contact  with  others  is 
frequent,  and  they  reach  all  classes  of  life, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest ;  and,  being 
born  of  intellectual  aspect,  they  are  more 
suitable  for  artistic  dressing  than  those  whose 
faces  have  become  stolid  in  pursuit  of  gain. 
If  it  were  appreciated  by  them  that  a  man 
suitably  attired  is  really  a  delightful  spectacle 
to  the  eye,  we  fancy  there  would  be  a  greater 
readiness  to  look  out  for  the  person.  But  it 
may  be  pleaded  that  professional  men  cannot 
afford  these  luxuries ;  their  incomes  are 
limited  and  their  general  expenses  high. 
This  is  a.  fallacious  kind  of  reasoning.  The 
man  who  pays  sixty  or  seventy  dollars  for  a 
suit  of  perfectly-fitting  clothes  is  practicing  a 
more  intelligent  economy  than  he  who  pur- 
chases at  one-third  the  sum,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  pleasure  of  wearing  he  enjoys  in  the  in- 
terval. The  durability,  also,  is  in  the  better 
articles,  as  well  as  the  pattern  and  attractive 
outline. 

In  the  official  life  of  America,  and  by  that 
is  meant,  of  course,  those  who  occupy  the 
offices,  and  their  immediate  beneficiaries,  there 


Those  who  should  Lead  the  Fashions.       89 

is  given  an  opportunity  to  influence  the  na- 
tional dress  not  to  be  ignored,  and  particularly 
since  the  dawn  of  civil  service  reform.  But 
if  we  pass  by  the  subordinates  and  come  to 
those  of  dignified  station,  we  do  not  find  a 
very  pleasing  prospect.  Beginning  at  the 
top  round,  the  United  States  has  had  but  one 
well-dressed  President  since  the  administra- 
tion of  James  Buchanan ;  and  he — President 
Arthur.  There  can  certainly  be  no  earthly 
excuse  for  the  Chief  Magistrate,  with  his 
body  attendant  close  at  hand,  not  to  set  an 
example  of  gentlemanly  and  becoming  garb 
to  the  whole  nation.  Likewise  with  both 
houses  of  Congress.  They  represent  in  their 
number  the  many  communities  by  whom 
they  are  delegated  to  make  laws,  and  their 
example  in  Washington,  wont  to  claim  its 
architecture  as  the  most  imposing  and  splen- 
did of  modern  times,  would  go  far  to  leaven 
the  masses.  Again,  there  is  a  habit  among 
the  American  people,  with  their  fresh  civiliza- 
tion, that  should  be  rooted  out  from  the  na- 
tional customs.  In  all  communities,  and 
among  all  classes,  the  people  think  it  incum- 
bent to  wear  only  their  best  clothes  on  Sun- 


90       Those  who  should  Lead  the  Fashions. 

days  and  festival  occasions.  We  take  it 
there  could  be  nothing  more  vulgar  than  this 
— basing  this  statement  on  every-day  common 
sense  principles.  Why,  let  us  ask,  should  a 
man  be  better  dressed  on  Sundays  than  on 
any  other  day  ?  Be  he  a  business  man,  he  has 
his  suit  for  the  counting-room;  for  evening 
calls,  his  frock-coat  or  dress-suit;  and  the 
various  other  forms  of  garments  suitable  for 
specific  occasions.  We  can  readily  under- 
stand why  mechanics,  and  those  doing  severe 
manual  labor,  should  preserve  a  portion  of 
their  wardrobe  for  the  set-apart  days ;  but,  for 
one  able  to  afford  the  outlay,  the  man  should 
be  no  better  dressed  one  day  than  another, 
and  at  all  times  well. 

Those  who  follow  the  rule  of  uniform  good 
dressing  form  a  very  large  class  at  present  in 
America,  and  they  are  more  independent  than 
the  gentry  of  England  and  the  Continent  in 
their  choice  of  tailors.  If  the  cut  and  fit  of 
their  orders  are  not  approved  they  seek  a 
new  shop,  and  are  thus  handed  around  among 
the  upper  houses,  whereas  in  England  the 
patron  seldom  changes,  but  is  satisfied  with 
what  is  meted  out  to  him. 


CHAPTER  XL 

EEFLECTIONS    ON    MODEKN"   WEAK. 

i 

IT  is  interesting  to  note  the  derivation 
of  the  name  by  which  this  portion  of  dress 
is  known  at  the  present  day.  The  word 
trousers  is  not  an  old  form.  Mr.  Skeat  re- 
marks that,  in  older  books,  this  word  is 
found  without  the  latter  r,  as  troozes,  trouzes, 
and  even  trooze,  like  the  Lowland  Scotch 
trews ;  and  in  Henry  V,  iii,  7,  57,  Shake- 
speare has  the  corrupt  form  strossers.  The 
word  is  said  to  have  been  particularly  used 
of  the  nether  garments  of  the  Irish,  and  Mr. 
Skeat  gives,  with  others,  a  quotation  from 
Sir  T.  Herbert's  Travels,  as  follows:  "Their 
breeches,  like  the  Irish  trooze,  have  hose 
and  stockings  sewed  together." 

In  Ford's  Perkin  Warbeck,  iii,  2,  the  stage 
direction  reads :  "  Four  wild  Irish  in  trowses." 

The  original  of  the  word  is,  undoubtedly, 
the  French  trousses,  trunk-hose  or  breeches, 
but  at  first,  and  in  the  singular,  a  bundle  or 
case,  such  as  a  quiver  for  arrows,  as  given  in 


92  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

Cotgrave's  dictionary,  quoted  by  Mr.  Skeat. 
The  limited  meaning  of  trunk-hose,  or  of 
that  portion  of  the  body  more  directly  con- 
cerned with  that  form  of  garment,  is  the 
one  preserved  in  the  French  familiar  idiom 
quoted  by  Carlyle  in  his  Frederick  the  Great, 
in  his  account  of  the  unfortunate  Russian 
lady  whose  physical  infirmities  compelled 
her  to  travel  "  Toujours  un  lavement  a  ses 
trousses"  The  mutations  and  chances  which 
have  overtaken  this  word  are,  perhaps,  not 
more  surprising  than  those  which  most 
words  are  made  to  undergo  ;  but  it  gives  us 
a  moment's  pause  to  find  the  accepted  Eng- 
lish name  to  have  been,  but  two  hundred 
years  ago,  applied  only  to  the  dress  of  the 
wild  Irish.  No  Englishman  of  to-day  would 
use  the  general  American  name  of  pantaloons 
for  this  indispensable  and  inexpressible  ar- 
ticle. One  must  say  trousers ;  but  when  he 
says  it  he  makes  use  of  a  word  French  by 
origin,  Irish  by  naturalization,  and  English 
by  adoption  only  from  the  Irish.  It  must 
be  expected  that  this  word  will  continually 
gain  ground  in  the  United  States,  since  it 
has  in  its  favor  the  influence  of  English  ex- 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  93 

ample  and  social  prestige  ;  and  if  it  were 
only  that  the  form  of  it  precludes  its  being 
abbreviated,  like  its  competitor,  in  a  shape — 

Hateful,  horrible,  monstrous,  not  to  be  told, 

this  were  enough  to  make  every  one  pray  for 
its  speedy  and  permanent  triumph. 

The  preferred  American  name  of  panta- 
loons is  important  enough  to  claim  a  few 
words  taken  from  Mr.  Skeat's  dictionary. 
The  word  is  there  explained  as  of  Greek 
origin,  through  the  Italian,  and  is  said  to  be 
a  personal  name,  meaning  all-lion,  from  panta, 
wholly,  and  leon,  lion.  Littr6,  the  great 
French  lexicographer,  gives  a  different  der- 
ivation and  meaning — all-pitiful;  also  from 
the  Greek.  The  former  explanation  seems 
the  better,  though  one  does  not  like  to  ques- 
tion a  positive  statement  by  Littre.  In 
Italy  the  name  is  peculiarly  Venetian,  and 
the  people  of  that  city  are  known  to  the 
other  Italians  as  Pantaloons,  just  as  Lon- 
doners are  called  Cockneys.  In  the  Italian 
comedy  the  pantalone  is  a  covetous  and 
amorous  old  dotard,  who  is  made  the  butt 
of  the  piece.  Mahn  says  that  St.  Pantaleone 


94  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

is  the  patron  saint  of  Venice,  and  that  his 
name  is  a  very  common  baptismal  name  in 
that  city.  There  is  a  St.  Pantaleone,  whose 
day  is  July  27 ;  but  it  is  a  little  odd  that 
neither  Herr  Mahn  nor  Mr.  Skeat  seems  to 
have  remembered  that,  if  Venice  has  a  patron 
saint,  it  is  St.  Mark.  Lord  Byron's  etymol- 
ogy of  the  name  Pantaloon  is  justly  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Skeat  as  extraordinary  and 
even  ridiculous ;  and  it  is  well  to  call  atten- 
tion to  this  point,  because  for  one  person 
who  looks  into  an  etymological  dictionary 
there  are,  happily,  five  hundred  who  read 
Byron ;  and,  of  these,  many  never  think  of 
questioning  his  authority.  It  is  the  preroga- 
tive of  a  genius  so  splendid  to  subdue  and 
to  dazzle  the  reader ;  but  all  ought  to  know 
that  in  questions  of  learning  Byron  is  ruled 
out  of  court.  Whatever  the  etymology  of 
the  word,  it  came  from  Venice,  and  was  in 
time  transferred  from  the  men  who  were 
known  as  Pantaloons  to  the  kind  of  breeches 
which  they  wore.  It  is  instructive  to  ob- 
serve that,  while  the  English  have  adopted 
a  name  of  French  origin,  the  French  rec- 
ognize only  the  Italian  name  of  the  inex- 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  95 

pressibles ;  though  it  does  not  appear  by 
what  secret  sympathies  men  are  guided  in 
their  selection  of  such  terms.  The  fact  is 
such,  and  beyond  this  no  one  appears  to  be 
able  to  penetrate ;  for  each  nation  has  pos- 
sessed, in  ordinary  usage,  the  word  it  now 
seems  to  have  finally  discarded.  The  pan- 
taloons were  worn  under  that  name  in  the 
time  of  the  Restoration.  In  an  inventory  of 
apparel  provided  for  Charles  II,  in  1679,  we 
find  a  complete  suit  of  one  material  under 
the  familiar  designation  of  coat,  waistcoat, 
and  breeches.  Pantaloons  are  mentioned  in 
the  same  inventory,  and  a  yard  and  a  half 
of  lutestring  allowed  for  them.*  These  pan- 
taloons were  loose  in  the  upper  part,  and 
puffed,  fitting  closer  on  the  lower  leg,  and 
terminating  in  stockings.  There  is  evidence 
in  Hudibras  that  the  garment  had  been 
adopted,  not  directly  from  Italy,  but  from 
France.  In  Part  I,  Canto  3,  occur  these  lines  : 

And  as  the  French  we  conquered  once, 
Now  give  us  laws  for  pantaloons. 

The  evidence  is  not  conclusive,  since  the 

*  Planche,  History  of  British  Costume,  p.  327. 


96  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

French  fashion  might  have  come  in  to  mod- 
ify the  style  of  garments  already  in  use; 
but  the  lines  admit  of  the  other  interpreta- 
tion. It  is  probable  that  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  two  names  in  the  American  world 
will  end,  not,  as  some  might  wish,  in  the 
definite  triumph  of  one  form  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  other,  but  in  a  kind  of  compro- 
mise which  will  give  to  the  form  trousers 
"les  grandes  et  les  petites  entrees"  in  good 
society,  and  leave  to  the  other  the  ever  wide 
domain  of  the  great  multitude  which,  for 
fear  of  some  more  vigilant  guardians  of  the 
democratic  idea,  we  hesitate  to  designate  as 
the  masse-s.  Not  that  the  term  has  in  it  any- 
thing necessarily  offensive,  since  it  is  a  self- 
evident  proposition  that,  when  the  popula- 
tion of  the  world  amounts,  according  to 
Behm  and  Wagner,  the  best  of  all  authorities, 
to  something  over  1,400,000,000,  it  is  a  mere 
statement  of  scientific  fact  to  speak  of  the 
masses  of  mankind.  We  may  call  them  what 
we  will,  masses  they  will  remain,  because 
they  will  always  largely  outnumber  those 
who  aim  at  a  high  and  refined  ideal  of  cul- 
ture and  civilization  in  thought,  and  in  the 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  97 

outward  expression  of  thought  as  manifested 
in  language,  manners,  and  attire.  Man  has 
always,  until  he  has  caught  the  divine  fire, 
what  Swift  has  called  an  alacrity  in  sink- 
ing. 

One  has  but  to  give  a  glance  at  what 
we  call  our  monuments,  in  the  shape  of  col- 
umns and  of  statues,  to  recognize  the  down- 
ward gravitation  of  the  average  man ;  and  the 
one  saying  which  preserves  King  Bomba's 
memory  from  entire  detestation  is  his  witty 
remark  on  the  proposed  remodeling  of  the 
uniform  of  his  soldiers,  mere  mercenaries  of 
a  tyrant  who  thought  as  basely  of  his  people 
as  of  himself,  and  dreaded  nothing  so  much 
as  the  wakening  of  individual  manhood  and 
the  feeling  of  national  pride  in  the  Neapol- 
itans :  "  Yes,  yes !  Have  it  as  you  will ; 
dress  them  in  red,  dress  them  in  blue,  they 
will  run  away  all  the  same."  For  the  sup- 
port of  numbers  gives  weak  men  the  courage 
to  say  and  to  do  that  which  they  feel  to  be 


wrong. 


Of  the  part  played  in  literature  by  the 
trousers  it  is  difficult  to  speak,  within  the 
limits  of  the  present  work,  so  many  and  so 


98  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

important  are  the  instances  besides  those  but 
just  alluded  to.  Yet  it  is  impossible  to  pass 
in  silence  the  one  most  endeared  to  the  recol- 
lection by  the  exquisite  genius  and  sweet 
humanity  of  Cervantes.  In  his  inimitable 
description  of  his  hero,  how  lightly  he  passes 
over  the  other  less  characteristic  portions  of 
Don  Quixote's  dress  to  set  before  us,  with 
one  touch,  the  perfect  picture  of  the  knight 
in  his  antique  dignity  and  lofty  self-posses- 
sion, by  the  mention  of  his  "  velvet  breeches 
of  a  holiday,  and  his  slippers  of  the  same  !" 
No  one  but  a  master,  a  literary  artist  of  the 
most  delicate  insight  into  character,  could 
have  seized  so  unerringly  upon  a  trait  so  dis- 
tinctive and  so  full  of  revelation.  How  vast 
the  distance  between  art  so  subtle  and  the 
labored  catalogue  of  small  details  which  do 
but  fatigue  the  reader  without  aiding  his 
perceptions,  or  enabling  him  to  conceive  the 
personages  in  so  many  of  what  are  called  the 
novels  of  real  life  !  To  find  anything  like 
this  delicacy  we  must  go  to  the  kindred 
genius  of  Moliere,  who  sets  before  113  at  a 
stroke  the  narrow-mindedness  and  ignorant 
prejudice  of  the  dullard  who  looks  upon 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  99 

women  as  mere  cooks  and  house-servants,  in 
the  immortal  lines : 

"Une  femme  en  salt  tou jours  assez, 
Quand  la  capacitg  de  son  esprit  se  hausse 
A  connaitre  un  pourpoint  d'avec  un  haut-de-chausse." 

Of  later  allusions  to  this  most  interesting 
and  important  subject,  the  most  sufficient  is, 
perhaps,  that  in  Lord  Lytton's  story  of  Eng- 
lish life,  My  Novel.  When  Dr.  Eiccabocca 
is  disrobing  himself,  with  the  help  of  his 
faithful  Giacomo,  and  confides  to  him  the 
contemplated  marriage  with  Miss  Jemima, 
the  subject  is  introduced,  and  the  confidence 
made,  in  a  way  that  brings  into  admirable 
relief  the  characters  of  both  master  and  man. 
"These  people,"  says  the  doctor,  "  want  me 
to  accept  £6000."  "  Six  thousand  pounds  !" 
answers  Giacomo,  pausing  in  the  act  of  draw- 
ing off  his  master's  trousers ;  "  six  thousand 
pounds  sterling  !  A  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  Milanese  !"  "  Yes ;  but  they 
want  me  to  do  something  for  it !"  says  the 
doctor.  "  Ah !"  cries  Giacomo ;  "  these  mer- 
cenary English !  They  want  you  to  become 
a  Protestant !"  <;  No,"  replies  Riccabocca, 


100  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

while  Giacomo  stands  with  the  trousers, 
fairly  drawn  off  at  last,  hanging  on  his  arm. 
"No;  they  want  me  never  to  wear  these 
again."  "  Never  to  wear — !"  gasps  out  Gia- 
como, looking,  mouth  and  eyes  wide  open,  at 
his  master's  long,  lean  legs.  This  is  an  admi- 
rable scene,  with  a  touch  of  genuine  humor 
rare  in  Lytton's  voluminous  writings,  and 
shows  what  he  might  have  done  if  he  had 
not  chased  so  long  and  so  far  the  will-o'-the- 
wisp  of  an  intangible  philosophy. 

The  extension  of  the  cylindrical  idea,  from 
the  trousers  to  the  waistcoat  and  coat,  was 
a  long  and  slow  process.  The  waistcoat,  in- 
deed, must  have  existed  in  some  form  from  a 
very  early  date,  for  men  must  have  found, 
soon  after  the  invention  of  separate  garments 
in  place  of  the  one  all-sufficient  skin  or  robe, 
that  a  smaller,  more  closely-fitting  piece  about 
the  chest  and  upper  portion  of  the  body  was 
imperatively  called  for.  It  was,  at  first,  a 
band  wrapped  around  the  body,  but  this  was 
soon  found  to  be  inconvenient,  and  it  was 
modified,  by  degrees,  from  the  shape  of  a 
loosely-fitting,  sleeveless  shirt,  into  what  has 
remained  substantially  the  same  form  in  all 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  101 

places,  made  now  longer,  now  shorter,  cut 
higher  up  to  the  neck  or  open  farther  down 
the  front,  but  always  literally  a  waistcoat, 
according  to  the  proper  English  term,  a  more 
significant  one  every  way  than  the  French- 
American  word  vest,  since  the  former  clearly 
identifies,  and  at  the  same  time  defines,  the 
real  purpose  of  this  part  of  the  costume, 
while  vest,  which  means  only  a  covering  or 
garment  in  general,  requires  a  supplementary 
definition.  Nevertheless,  between  two  words, 
indicating  the  same  article  in  common  use,  it 
will  usually  be  found  that  the  shorter  one  is 
almost  sure  to  supplant  the  longer.  The 
exceptions  to  this  rule  are  few,  and  some  of 
them  more  apparent  than  real.  Vest  is  per- 
ceptibly winning  in  the  struggle  with  its 
rival. 

As  the  doublet  of  the  earlier  time  passed 
into  the  waistcoat  of  more  modern  days, 
the  former  name  was  applied  to  the  coat  al- 
most as  often  as  to  the  close  waistcoat.  It 
was  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
II  that  the  dress  of  a  gentleman  is  described 
by  Randal  Holmes,  the  Cheshire  herald,  as 
quoted  by  Mr.  Planche,  in  terms  which  leave 


102  Reflections  on  Modern  Wear. 

no  doubt  as  to  the  final  disappearance  of 
the  remains  of  the  picturesque  Elizabethan 
styles :  "  A  short-waisted  doublet  and  petti- 
coat-breeches, the  lining  being  lower  than 
the  breeches,  is  tied  above  the  knees ;  the 
breeches  are  ornamented  with  ribbons  up  to 
the  pocket,  and  half  their  breadth  upon  the 
thigh ;  the  waistband  is  set  about  with  rib- 
bons, and  the  shirt  hanging  out  over  them." 
This  doublet  with  the  short  waist  was,  in 
fact,  the  coat,  and  by  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  II  it  had  been  lengthened  to  the 

o 

middle  of  the  thigh,  while  its  sleeves,  reach- 
ing only  to  the  elbow,  were  there  joined  by 
the  bulging  sleeves  of  the  shirt,  ruffed,  and 
adorned  with  ribbons. 

Through  the  reigns  of  the  second  Charles, 
James  II,  and  William  III,  there  was  but 
trifling  alteration  in  costume.  The  Great  King 
dominated  the  social  as  well  as  the  political 
and  the  literary  world  during  this  long  period, 
the  most  imposing  portion  of  the  costume 
which  he  wore  being  the  tremendous  periwig 
created  to  preserve  the  tradition  of  his  youth- 
ful beauty.  The  story  runs  that  Louis,  when 
a  little  boy  (he  became  king  at  the  age  of 


Reflections  on  Modern  Wear.  103 

five  years),  had  remarkably  beautiful  hair, 
which  fell  in  long  waving  curls  upon  his 
shoulders,  and  the  courtiers,  out  of  compli- 
ment to  the  young  majesty,  had  perukes 
fashioned  to  imitate  his  curls-.  Mr.  Planche 
considers  the  story  more  than  doubtful,  and 
it  may  safely  be  set  down  in  the  category 
with  the  famous  legend  about  the  change  in 
the  gender  of  the  word  carrosse,  made  per- 
manently masculine,  from  feminine  that  it 
had  been,  because  the  boy-king  had  com- 
manded son  carrosse,  and  the  courtiers  recog- 
nized his  authority  over  the  dictionary,  as 
over  every  other  sublunary  thing. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   HYGIENE    OF    DRESS. 

THE  discussion  of  the  subject  of  healthful 
dress,  both  for  men  and  women,  has  been 
a  fruitful  as  well  as  a  fruitless  theme  since 
the  earliest  ages ;  and  while  it  is,  perhaps, 
strictly  speaking,  beyond  the  domain  of  the 
ornamental  so  fully  treated  in  other  parts 
of  this  volume,  it  is  of  such  vital  import  to 
man  in  general  that  some  reflections  of 
the  author's  experience  may  be  noted  here. 
Without,  therefore,  venturing  on  that  sani- 
tary ground  which  is  the  sole  sphere  of  the 
physiological  expert,  it  is  well  to  speak  of 
those  ordinary  conditions  of  attire  insepara- 
ble from  healthy  apparel.  These  conditions 
should  be  apparent  to  every  skilled  tailor 
who  understands  the  physique  of  his  subject, 
and  who  is  made  aware  of  his  bodily  in- 
firmities. Still,  there  are  some  general  ob- 
servations particularly  applicable  to  Amer- 
ica, and  illustrating  afresh  that  ignorant 
spirit  of  imitation  of  the  useful  in  England, 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress.  105 

in  which  the  pioneers  make  it  the  fashion 
for  fashion's  sake,  when  there  is  no  sensible 
reason  whatever  for  importing  English  styles. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  ulster.  What  was  its 
origin  in  Great  Britain  ?  It  was  invented, 
as  other  extraordinary  garments  of  those 
isles  have  been,  to  suit  a  practical  purpose 
— one  eminently  practical,  too.  Their  rail- 
way carriages  are  narrow  compartments, 
warmed  in  winter  by  portable  zinc  heaters 
filled  with  hot  water,  and  which  take  a  fresh 
supply,  from  time  to  time,  along  the  route 
of  travel.  As  these  compartments  hold  but 
six  travelers,  and  there  is  no  space  for  other 
than  mere  hand-luggage,  the  ulster  was  de- 
signed to  replace  the  rug,  and  to  permit  the 
traveler,  thus  protected  against  draught  and 
imperfect  heating,  to  seek  repose  and  sleep 
without  sprawling  out  under  the  cover  of 
the  old  devices.  For  this  purpose  the  ulster 
was  found  to  be  a  most  opportune  expedient. 
Straightway,  however,  the  American  intro- 
duces it  at  home.  He  wears  it  going  to  the 
opera,  in  the  steam  and  street  cars,  and 
thinks  it  particularly  appropriate  at  cafes 
and  walking  up  and  down  the  avenue,  little 


106  The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

knowing  that,  by  this  unwieldy  and  un- 
natural heat-producing  mass  of  heavy  clothes, 
he  is  undergoing  cutaneous  exhalations,  all 
of  which  are  speeding  him  to  the  tomb. 
Here  it  is  an  abuse  of  the  use  of  a  desirable 
garment  for  a  specific  purpose,  but  not  in 
American  travel,  and  most  assuredly  not  in 
our  every-day  life  in  the  cities.  This  is  a 
case  of  the  over- wrought.  It  passes  away  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  moderation,  and  reaches 
excess ;  for  we  can  have  excess  in  dress, 
in  drinking,  and  in  eating.  Given  a  shunt 
in  any  direction,  and  the  American  is  apt  to 
be  apish,  to  go  to  the  ultimate  extreme. 
Who  can  estimate  the  useful  lessons  which 
might  be  derived  from  Dr.  Tanner,  who  un- 
doubtedly fasted  for  forty  days  simply  to 
show  that  we,  as  a  people,  eat  too  much? 
And,  were  the  subject  thoroughly  fathomed, 
can  it  be  doubted  that  one  of  the  national 
sins  against  health  is  baking  the  body  in 
an  oven  fabricated  of  silk,  cotton,  chamois, 
and  wool,  thus  excluding  the  air  from  the 
millions  of  respiratory  pores  ?  Is  it  a  won- 
der that,  since  these  very  ulsters  have  come 
into  fashion,  old  New  Yorkers — those  who 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress.  107 

have  stood  the  wintry  blasts  of  Manhattan 
till  whitened  with  years,  and  who  have  faced 
the  biting  winds  blowing  eastward  from  the 
sea,  in  every-day  attire,  only  to  grow  ruddier 
— have  shot  out  of  existence  in  a  few  hours, 
with  their  obituaries  marked  "  Pneumonia  ?" 
Let  the  New  Yorker  call  the  mortuary  roll 
of  his  friends  for  a  single  winter  and  spring 
— those  who  have  been  cut  down  without  a 
warning — and  the  brief  struggle  with  the 
grim  spectre  may  be  assigned  to  the  load  of 
wraps  which  he  wears  and  discards  at  brief 
intervals,  when  the  moment  of  discomfort  is 
too  much  for  his  ease  of  body.  Better,  in- 
finitely, would  it  be  for  a  man  to  wear  a 
uniform  weight  of  fabrics  during  all  tem- 
peratures of  the  year,  rather  than  swaddle 
himself  in  the  manner  described.  This  may 
sound  as  if  it  were  directly  against  the 
tailor's  self-interest ;  if  so,  so  be  it,  for  this, 
like  Montaigne's  book,  "  is  a  book  of  good 
faith."  But  the  ills  of  pneumonia  are  all 
of  recent  origin — whether  they  come  from 
external  heat  produced  from  superabundance 
of  garb,  or  internally  from  an  excessive  use 
of  spirits.  This  is  the  simple  truth  that  can 


108  The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

be  seen  recorded  in  the  registers  of  the 
public  hospitals  or  the  diaries  of  private 
physicians.  How  different  was  the  story  of 
necrology  of  our  fathers,  who  led  lives  of 
simplicity,  activity,  and  physical  as  well  as 
mental  toil,  and  were  only  glad  if  they  could 
wear  clothes  free  from  rent  and  soil.  There 
is  the  historical  anecdote,  spread  on  the  pub- 
lic records,  of  Silas  Wright,  once  governor 
of  New  York  State,  IL  S.  senator,  and 
statesman,  whose  fame  rang  through  the 
world.  In  his  dress  and  occupation  he 
looked,  in  every  particular,  like  a  common 
laboring  farmer.  He  had  the  utmost  abhor- 

O 

rence  for  anything  like  fiction  in  equipage, 
politics,  manners,  or  style  of  dress ;  and, 
when  he  returned  from  his  senatorial  duties, 
he  followed  the  example  of  Chief  Justice 
Marshall,  and  took  his  wheelbarrow  and  went 
to  the  village  mill  to  purchase  flour  and  meal. 
It  so  happened  that,  while  governor  of  the 
State,  he  found  himself  called  to  Lockport, 
in  Western  New  York,  to  inspect  the  im- 
provement on  the  colossal  hydraulic  works  of 
the  Erie  Canal.  While  climbing  up  the  steep 
hill  leading  from  the  lower  to  the  upper  city, 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress,  109 

lie  came  in  contact  with  jagged  edges  of  the 
craggy  rock,  and  a  large  rent  was  the  result 
on  his  seat  of  dignity  of  the  bifurcated  gar- 
ment. His  Excellency,  however  democratic, 
could  not  proceed  without  visiting  a  tailor, 
who  then  and  there,  without  process  of  dis- 
robing, applied  a  huge  patch  to  the  unsightly 
area.  Years  later,  this  incident  became  po- 
litical property  of  a  grotesque  kind,  when  it 
was  discovered  that  he  had  filed  a  voucher 
with  the  financial  officer  of  the  State,  upon 
which  he  had  drawn  sixpence  from  the  pub- 
lic treasury  to  reimburse  himself  for  neces- 
sary expenses  incurred  during  an  official 
journey.  Statesmen  and  publicists  often  have 
queer  notions  about  dress,  and  these  are  gen- 
erally founded  on  very  erroneous  opinions  of 
sanitary  laws.  The  writer  recalls  a  scene 
which  he  witnessed  in  Bordeaux,  in  France, 
when  the  Assembly  was  called  together,  at 
the  close  of  the  Franco-German  War,  to  decide 
whether  the  nation  would  submit  to  the 
terras  of  Bismarck.  A  party  of  American 
journalists  were  taking  breakfast  together  at 
a  private  table  in  the  Hotel  de  France,  when 
a  little,  beardless  and  timid  man  approached 


110  The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

a  well-known  Boston  journalist,  who  rose  to 
receive  him  in  a  quiet  way. 

"  Here,"  said  the  bashful  new-comer,  appar- 
ently a  little  frightened  on  approaching  such 
a  fashionably  dressed  circle,  "  are  two  of  the 
best  seats  for  the  sitting  of  the  Assembly  to- 
day. It  will  be  a  great  event  in  French  his- 
tory. We  will  decide  for  continued  war 
against  the  invaders,  or  for  peace." 

A  New  York  journalist  of  the  party  was 
on  the  alert  in  an  instant,  for  seats  in  that 
tumultuous  legislature  could  not  be  obtained 
by  dukes,  marshals,  or  even  princes,  for  that 
historic  day.  He  closely  scrutinized  the  lit- 
tle man,  who  was  clad  in  baggy  trousers, 
well-worn  and  ill-fitting  sack-coat,  and  frayed 
tie,  and  concluded  that  he  was  some  fa- 
vored commissionaire  of  the  Assembly  with- 
out his  insignia  of  service.  The  enterpris- 
ing scribe  jumped  up  in  eager  haste,  and, 
producing  a  handful  of  napoleons,  said : 

"  Here  we  are !  Get  me  two  seats,  or  even 
one,  and  this  money  is  yours." 

A  sudden  color  mounted  to  the  cheek  of 
the  Frenchman,  and  the  Boston  journalist 
bounded  back  as  if  he  had  been  struck  by  a 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 


Ill 


projectile  from  a  Krupp  gun,  and  the  moment 
was  one  of  supreme  awkwardness.  In  a  short 


112  .    The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

time,  however,  the  lucky  recipient  of  the 
tickets  stammered  forth  to  his  comrades : 

"  Permit  me  to  make  known  Mr.  Louis 
Blanc,  the  distinguished  historian  of  France, 
and  member  of  the  National  Assembly." 

The  effect  may  be  imagined;  but,  after 
mutual  explanations,  no  one  enjoyed  the 
contretemps  more  thoroughly  than  the  most 
renowned  orator  who  then  swayed  that  mer- 
curial body  in  which  sat  Thiers,  Jules  Favre, 
Gambetta,  Kochefort,  Grevy,  and  Jules  Si- 
mon, not  to  speak  of  the  commanding  form  of 
Garibaldi  costumed  in  his  red  shirt.  But,  sad 
to  relate,  his  very  neglect  of  the  simple  sani- 
tary rules  of  dress  subsequently  cut  short  the 
distinguished  career  of  Louis  Blanc  and  car- 

O 

ried  him  over  to  the  majority — the  great  de- 
parted of  his  race,  among  whom  he  stands 
unequaled  in  handling  the  fascinating  diction 
of  the  French  tongue,  and  one  of  the  finished 
classical  writers  and  philosophers  of  his  time. 
The  central  idea  of  healthful  dress  lies  in 
knowing  how  to  dress  to  varying  temperatures, 
in  a  manner  to  permit  equable  exhalations 
from  the  body,  so  that  the  circulation  may  be 
ever  normal,  and  particularly  so  as  to  protect 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress.  113 

the  exercise  of  the  vital  functions.  This  is 
not  a  difficult  problem  to  solve  if  one  obey 
the  Greek  injunction  "  Know  thyself."  Every 
man,  in  studying  his  own  physical  suscepti- 
bilities, should,  in  a  measure  at  least,  be  able 
to  determine  the  requirements  of  a  protective 
and  agreeable  covering.  Thus  no  fixed  laws 
can  be  laid  down ;  yet  in  general  it  may  be 
maintained  that  there  is  no  excuse  for  careless 
exposure,  if  close  attention  be  given  to  this 
subject,  and  particularly  among  those  of  ade- 
quate means.  The  author's  experience  teaches 
him  that  no  wardrobe,  having  a  pretence  to 
completeness,  is  perfect  without  its  owner 
has  at  least  five  different  overcoats  to  meet 
the  fluctuations  of  the  thermometer.  First, 
there  should  be  a  very  light  overcoat  for  mid- 
summer, for  those  who  make  sudden  changes 
from  in-doors  into  the  night  air,  as  from  the 
heated  theatre  to  the  cool  draughts  without, 
or  when,  as  often  occurs,  there  is  a  sudden 
change  of  thirty  degrees,  from  a  collar-melt- 
ing torridity  to  refrigerating  blasts.  This 
may  be  but  little  heavier  than  the  ordinary 
duster,  but  it  serves  to  shed  the  north-laden 
breezes  which  carry  on  their  wings  many  a  grim 


114  The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

spectre,  and  myriads  of  racking  coughs  which 
chase  the  unfortunate  victim  oftentimes  into  a 
lingering  affection  of  the  lungs,  having,  more 
often  than  is  ever  dreamed,  the  dread  termin- 
ation. Then  there  should  be  the  usual  light 
spring  overcoat,  when  winter  has  taken  its 
final  leave  ;  and  in  the  autumn  one  of  heavier 
make,  so  graded  as  to  weight  that  the  transi- 
tion may  be  gradual  to  a  garment  of  medium 
make  which  can  be  worn  in  late  November 
and  early  December,  and  at  times  during  the 
sunny  and  thawing  days  of  winter.  And  last, 
of  course,  comes  the  regular  winter  overcoat, 
which  can  give  freedom  to  the  legs  and  be 
not  so  heavy  as  to  embarrass  locomotion,  or 
liable,  in  this  climate,  to  any  of  the  objections 
urged  against  the  absurd  use  of  ulsters.  Of 
course  a  precautionary  wardrobe  like  this, 
even  when  wealth  permits,  cannot  always  be 
had,  particularly  among  naval  and  army  offi- 
cers on  duty,  and  among  those  strict  ecclesias- 
tics who  will  not  on  any  occasion  depart  from 
the  conventional  cloth.  A  propos  of  this,  it 
is  narrated  of  President  Cleveland's  grand- 
father— who,  besides  being  a  noted  preacher, 
always  in  his  pulpit  uniform,  no  matter  what 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress.  115 

the  season,  was  also  a  hot  federalist  of  the 
school  of  Jay  and  Hamilton — that,  while  rid- 
ing horseback  in  the  good  old  days  of  1793,  he 
met  a  young  man  coming  from  the  opposite 
direction  along  the  highway.  The  divine 
wished  to  water  his  horse  in  the  stream,  which 
they  reached  at  the  same  moment,  but  the 
youth  drew  his  rein  so  suddenly  that  the 
water  was  roiled  and  made  unfit  to  drink. 

"  Good  morning,  Mr.  Minister !"  said  the 
bold  countryman. 

"  Good  morning,  Mr.  Democrat !"  replied 
the  reverend  gentleman. 

"And,  pray,  why  did  you  take  me  for  a 
democrat  ?"  said  the  young  man. 

"  Pray,  why  did  you  take  me  for  a  minister  ?" 
rejoined  the  parson. 

"Oh!"  said  the  fellow,  "that  is  plain 
enough  by  your  dress" 

"And  that  you  are  a  democrat  is  plain 
enough  by  your  address"  was  the  retort  of 
the  reverend  Cleveland. 

On  the  hygiene  of  dress  a  great  deal  has 
been  written,  and  many  impractical  reforms 
have  been  suggested  to  both  sexes.  Recently 
there  has  appeared  Dr.  G.  Jaeger,  in  a  volume 


116  The  Hygiene  of  Dress. 

called  Health  Culture  and  the  Sanitary  Woolen 
System,  in  which  the  learned  M.D.  would  con- 
vert us  into  veritable  sheep.  The  vaulting 
enthusiast  proclaims  that  we  must,  or  die, 
unto  ourselves  a  woolen  night-shirt  take, 
then  woolen  socks,  and  woolen  drawers, 
and  woolen  wrappers,  and  woolen  coats 
and  caps,  and  trousers  all,  and  lie  down 
to  sleep  in  woolen  beds.  Such  a  being, 
observing  his  own  laws,  will  have  the 
wind  duly  tempered  to  him,  like  the  shorn 
lamb,  and  in  the  fullness  of  time  he  will  per- 
form most  astonishing  vocal  exploits  ;  and  the 
doctor  gravely  hints  that  tenors,  baritones, 
contraltos,  and  sopranos,  will  spring  up  in  a 
jiffy,  and  the  world  will  be  submerged  by  a 
deluge  of  song — marvelous  youth  and  lon- 
gevity, never  vouchsafed  before  his  discovery ! 
His  earnest  attention  to,  and  encomiastic 
essays  on,  the  virtues  of  the  mutton  family, 
constitute  an  intellectual  effort  quite  as  extra- 
ordinary as  that  of  the  man  who  has  invented 
an  eating  apparatus  to  relieve  the  digestive 
organs  of  their  periodical  labor,  or  the  scheme 
of  the  man  who  proposes  to  reinforce  the 
empty  gray  cells  of  the  brain  with  Byronic 


The  Hygiene  of  Dress.  117 

or  Shakespearean  phosphorus  by  an  off-hand 
bit  of  surgery.     And,  Doctor : 

"'Tis  the  world's  debt  to  deeds  of  high  degree; 
And,  if  you  pay  yourself,  the  world  is  free." 

From  what  has  been  advanced,  it  will  be 
perceived  that  the  hygiene  of  dress  is  found- 
ed on  strict  common  sense  and  easily  as- 
certained conditions  of  the  individual.  Dark 
and  light  clothes  govern  the  methods  of  the 
seasons  so  generally  found  on  this  side  of  the 
water,  and  there  is  little  to  say  within  the 
scope  of  a  volume  like  this  that  is  not  under- 
stood by  all  intelligent  men.  The  one  vital 
principle  is — do  not  overdress ;  do  not  weigh 
yourself  down  with  heavy  and  useless  gar- 
ments ;  and  be  assured  that  the  straight  road 
to  longevity  lies  along  the  pathway  where 
you  find  elegant  styles  and  material  made 
only  by  the  best  of  manufacturers. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    IDEAL    SUIT    OF  CLOTHES. 

IT  is  treading  on  dangerous  ground  to  pro- 
claim fixed  standards,  or  promulgate  inflexible 
laws  of  fashion.  What  pleases  one  gentleman 
will  not  another,  and,  while  some  are  extrem- 
ists in  all  that  adorns  the  person,  there  is  a 
distinct  class  who  prefer  the  very  subdued 
attire,  either  as  a  protest  against  all  manner 
of  ostentation,  or  because  it  is  the  habit  of 
their  set.  Yet,  however  this,  the  guiding 
principle  of  the  ideal  suit  lies  in  one  over- 
shadowing word — outline.  From  whatever 
point  of  view  we  observe  the  figure  of  man, 
as  clad  in  the  clothes  of  the  period,  the 
bounding  curves  and  profiles  must  encase  a 
symmetrical  being  with  the  laws  of  propor- 
tion strictly  followed.  Beyond  this  it  is  un- 
necessary to  go  into  the  technical  art  of  the 
cutter  and  fitter.  Let  us  now  inquire  how 
many  styles  prevailing  in  1885  are  in  to 
stay — that  have  taken  a  firm  root  among  all 
the  peoples  of  Europe  and  America.  These 


The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes.  119 

comprise  four  garments — the  sack  coat,  the 
frock  coat,  the  four-button  cutaway,  and  the 
dress  coat.  Waistcoats  and  trousers  will  con- 
stantly change,  but  the  coats  are  fixed,  and 
will  so  remain,  with  trivial  changes,  until  there 
is  a  total  revolution  in  our  apparel.  All  of 
these  garments  should,  therefore,  belong  to 
the  wardrobe  of  every  gentleman,  even  if. 
he  does  not  go  beyond  the  middle-class  social 
circles  in  his  contact  with  fashionable  life, 
so  called.  Of  these,  perhaps,  the  sack  or 
lounging  coat  is  the  most  indispensable,  as 
it  is  the  easiest,  the  most  desirable  in  active 
bodily  movements,  and  serviceable  in  nearly 
all  kinds  of  business,  except  where  extreme 
dignity  is  required.  Of  course,  men  regard 
the  working  suit  as  one  that  can  be  well  ex- 
ecuted, or  badly,  according  to  the  service 
required,  and  extremes  are  shown  in  the 
following : 

"  Why  don't  you  wash  and  dress  yourself 
when  you  come  into  a  court  of  justice  ?"  asked 
a  pompous  begowned  and  bewigged  London 
judge  of  a  chimney-sweep,  who  was  being 
examined  as  a  witness. 

"  Dress  myself,  my  Lord !"  said  the  sweep. 


120  The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 

"I  am  dressed  as  much  as  your  Lordship. 
I'm  in  my  working  clothes,  and  you  are  in 
yours." 

The  frock  coat,  so  commonly  known  in  the 
United  States  as  the  Prince  Albert,  is  a  mis- 
nomer when  spoken  of  as  the  supposed  crea- 
tion of  the  Queen's  Consort.  It  existed  long 
before  he  did,  and  will  continue  to  prevail 
long  after  we  are  all  gathered  to  our  fathers. 
It  is  exactly  suited  to  its  purpose — that  of 
afternoon  or  early  evening  wear ;  and  not  till 
the  era  so  earnestly  predicted  by  Oscar  Wilde 
and  his  disciples  will  it  give  way  to  another. 
But  the  neatest,  and  really  the  nattiest,  gar- 
ment that  has  come  into  vogue  in  recent 
years,  is  the  four-button  cutaway.  Has  a 
man  a  good  figure,  it  exhibits  in  a  perfect 
manner,  and  with  flowing  and  graceful  lines, 
the  fullness  of  the  chest,  the  firm  lines  of  the 
shoulders,  the  inward  curves  of  the  back,  as 
well  as  the  tapering  body  to  the  hips.  Re- 
garded in  profile,  in  front  or  behind,  it  is 
always  shapely,  sitting  easily  on  the  figure 
with  scarcely  an  angle  to  be  found.  Contrast 
this  even  with  the  double-breasted  frock,  and 
the  latter  suffers  because  of  its  rectangular 


The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes.  121 

aspect  and  superabundance  of  cloth.  And 
here  let  it  be  remarked  that  men  should  not 
go  about  carrying  superfluous  fabrics.  The 
aim  of  men's  wear  should  be  protection,  sim- 
plicity, style  in  the  cut,  and  so  designed  as  to 
make  the  best  of  all  of  the  advantages  and 
defects  of  the  figure.  As  to  the  dress-suit, 
there  have  been  recent  attempts  to  improve 
it,  particularly  by  the  fashion  journals  of 
England ;  and,  while  progress  would  doubt- 
less be  of  great  advantage  to  tailors,  it  can- 
not be  honestly  said  that  any  advance  has 
been  made  beyond  publishing  plates  and  de- 
scriptions of  the  newly  designed  garment. 
In  brief,  the  upper  portion  of  the  coat,  down 
to  the  flaps,  closely  resembles  the  present 
evening  dress  coat,  with  the  curved  line  ex- 
tending from  the  lower  termination  of  the 
lapels  to  the  extreme  trails  reaching  above 
the  knees  behind.  The  designers  insist  that 
this  can  be  made  up  in  blue,  black  or  wine 
color,  to  supersede  the  existing  style,  or,  in 
default  of  that,  it  should  be  worn  for  prome- 
nade wear.  This  is  mentioned,  not  because  it 
is  likely  to  come  into  immediate  use,  but  to 
exhibit  the  restlessness  which  gentlemen  all 


122  The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 

over  the  world  feel  in  their  eager  desire  to 
bury  forever  that  costume  of  all  dress  occa- 
sions which  makes  gentlemen  and  servants 
outwardly  the  same.  Hundreds  of  ludicrous 
situations  have  occurred  in  the  experience  of 
every  man  of  the  world,  and  some  of  them 
decidedly  dramatic  and  tragic,  where  our 
conventional  "claw-hammer"  has  produced 
life-long  enmities. 

The  author  has  often  been  asked  how 
much  should  a  gentleman  spend  on  his  ward- 
robe annually  ?  Allowing  that  he  has  the 
general  tastes  of  a  man  about  town — one  of 
leisure,  interested  in  lawn  sports  and  athletic 
games,  a  gentleman  rider,  following  yachting 
and  hunting,  and  fishing,  with  all  of  the 
winter  amusements  included,  and  that  he  is 
possessed  of  a  wardrobe  covering  all  the 
differing  fields  of  pleasure — it  will  require  the 
sum  of  $500  a  year  to  replenish  the  articles 
that  go  into  disuse,  and  keep  the  various 
suits  in  repair.  This  is  an  economical  esti- 
mate for  a  man  of  fashion,  and  one  who  is  not 
wasteful  or  extravagant.  But  there  are  men 
of  large  means  in  this  city,  who  own  their 
stud,  their  yacht  and  kennel,  who  order  as 


The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 


123 


many  as  fifty  suits  of  clothes  at  a  time  ;  and 
there  is  one  gentleman  in  New  York,  not  yet 
thirty-five  years  of  age,  and  of  a  slenderer 
bank  account  than  an  ordinary  cutter,  who 
boasts  of  having  two  hundred  and  fifty  suits 


STYlfiS  THAT  WILL  STAY. 


of  clothes,  all  made  by  the  same  London 
tailor.  As  the  aim  of  this  volume  through- 
out has  been  to  be  honest  with  the  reader, 
regardless  of  consequences  (for,  after  all,  that 
is  -the  easiest  way),  it  may  be  said  that  to 


124:  The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 

expend  over  $1000  annually  in  enlarging 
and  replenishing  the  wardrobe  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  sheer  folly.  There  are 
many  obvious  exceptions  to  this,  as  with 
actors  or  amateur  theatrical  performers,  or 
those  who  belong  to  lodges,  regiments  or 
societies.  Notwithstanding  the  truth  of  this 
estimate,  there  are  hundreds  of  New  Yorkers 
who  far  exceed  this  outlay,  and  perhaps, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  no  word  should  be 
written  to  discourage  them.  We  refer  to 
those  who  never  wear  a  suit  once  soiled  or 
out  of  shape,  but  who  send  it  to  their  butlers, 
valets,  and  other  serving  men.  This  is  widely 
prevalent  in  the  better  circles,  and  accounts 
for  the  fact  that  "swell"  cooks,  doormen, 
coachmen  and  waiters,  are  so  often  as  well 
dressed  as  their  masters.  There  is  a  waiters' 
and  cooks'  club  in  Lexington  avenue,  as  there 
is  a  resort  where  they  convene  in  Sixth  ave- 
nue, and  the  visitor  there  for  the  first  time  is 
startled  to  find  such  a  well-dressed  body  of 
men.  Indeed,  there  cannot  be  found,  at  any 
club  in  the  city,  a  body  so  uniformly  well 
attired  as  when  these  servitors  don  their 
fine  feathers. 


The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes.  125 

It  is  aside  from  the  object  of  a  treatise  like 
this,  which  does  not  pretend  to  disclose  the 
technique  of  clothes-making,  to  go  to  any 
extent  into  the  business  operations  of  the 
merchant-tailor.  But  there  are  several  feat- 
ures in  relation  to  the  class  of  manufacture 
which  it  is  proposed  to  notice  briefly.  First, 
every  superior  tailor  should  be  his  own  cut- 
ter. He  should  not  permit  his  business  to 
grow  to  such  an  extent  that,  in  this  respect, 
he  should  not  be  able  to  undertake  the  fash- 
ioning of  each  separate  garment  before  it  is 
handed  out  for  manufacture.  The  author 
has  never  deviated  from  this  rule,  here  or 
elsewhere,  nor  should  any  one  in  the  van- 
guard of  the  guild.  Again,  he  not  only 
should  make  the  patterns — that  is,  design 
and  cut  them  himself,  but,  moreover,  he 
should  cut  the  cloth.  There  is  a  knack  in 
this  that  does  not  come  to  every  one,  and  few 
journeymen  can  be  trusted  to  do  it  to  per-' 
fection.  This  involves  the  knowledge  of 
fabrics,  of  their  fibres  and  stretching  quali- 
ties, and  whether  to  cut  inside  or  outside 
the  line  of  demarcation.  If  the  reader  will 
consider  how  difficult  all  of  this  is  when 


126  The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 

varying  physiques  perplex  the  judgment,  he 
will  understand  how  necessary  it  is  to  have 
accurate  patterns  of  each  man's  frame,  exactly 
as  the  shoe-maker  makes  and  keeps  a  last  for 
a  standing  customer.  It  thus  happens  that 
tailors  are  often  consulted  by  sculptors  as  to 
the  dimensions  of  a  distinguished  man  who 
has  passed  away,  and  who  is  to  he  put  in 
bronze  in  some  public  place.  Again,  no  first- 
class  manufacturer  will  employ  women  to 
make  the  garments,  and  by  this  we  do  not 
intend  to  disparage  feminine  agility  or  ex- 
pertness.  The  gentler  sex  are  better  adapted 
to  dress-making,  and  this  being  their  peculiar 
sphere,  they  should  not  take  it  as  a  reflection 
when  we  say  that  men's  clothes  can  be  better 
made  by  men. 

Fabrics,  of  themselves,  would  make  an  in- 
teresting book.  But  we  do  not  intend  to 
lengthen  our  observations  by  going  into  the 
manufacture  of  woolens,  any  more  than  we 
would  consider  it  necessary  to  explain  the 
technique  of  picture-painting  in  order  to  pre- 
sent the  startling  beauties  of  the  composition 
or  the  intelligent  industry  of  the  artist.  All 
that  is  pertinent  to  say  is,  that  those  leaders 


The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes.  127 

of  style  among  the  tailors  of  New  York  who 
make  only  first-class  clothes  are  forced  to 
buy  only  English  goods,  because,  unpatriotic 
as  it  may  be  to  say  so,  American  manu- 
facturers cannot  yet  produce  cloths  of  equal 
beauty,  fibre,  and  texture,  with  all  other 
durable  qualities,  when  competing  with  the 
English.  And  with  this  inferiority  of  the 
domestic  article  in  view,  the  expense  of  Eng- 
lish goods,  with  the  ad  valorem  duty  of  forty 
percent,  added,  besides  the  thirty-five  cents 
per  pound  specific  duty,  renders  the  English 
fabric  quite  as  expensive  as  that  sold  here. 
People  often  ask,  when  keeping  this  subject 
in  mind,  why  it  is  that  Fifth  avenue  tailors 
demand  and  get  the  large  prices  they  do. 
Let  us  answer,  because  they  buy  only  the 
best  of  material  in  England,  while  inferior 
craftsmen  import  the  cheaper  stuffs.  You 
can  buy  woolens  in  England  for  2s.  6d.  to 
24s.  a  yard,  but  the  latter  is  the  figure  paid 
by  the  best  tailors  on  the  avenue.  And  it  is  a 
fact  that  a  $100  suit  of  clothes  sold  at  retail 
in  New  York  actually  costs  the  tailor  $75 
outlay.  The  three  garments  cost,  for  the 
stitches  alone,  $21  ;  for  the  cloth,  $28;  for  the 


128  The  Ideal  Suit  of  Clothes. 

cutting  and  trimming,  upward  of  $25.    Often 
the  alterations  will  cost  from  $3  to  $5. 

One  may  well  ask,  then,  where  does  the 
tailor's  profit  come  from  ?  In  part,  from  the 
cutting;  for  in  England  there  is  a  saying, 
that  the  cutter  who  cannot  save  his  wages, 
in  the  handling  of  the  shears  with  a  view  to 
economy,  had  better  quit  the  business. 
These  shoppy  details  and  reflections  have 
been  made  to  show  that  the  highway  to  the 
ideal  suit  of  clothes  is  not  a  royal  road ;  but, 
with  the  best  of  cloth,  artistic  designing, 
accurate  cutting,  close  fitting,  and  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  physique  of  the  dresser,  no 
man  who  is  a  tailor  can  fail  to  attain  highly 
creditable  results. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

BOYAL  AND  NOTED  BEAUX. 

There  have  always  been,  and  there  always 
will  be,  beaux ;  and  it  ought  to  be  noted  that 
the  received  idea  as  to  the  emptiness  and  use- 
lessness  of  the  character  is  like  a  great  many 
other  received  ideas  that  will  not  bear  ex- 
amination. If  the  young  Roman  dandies  in 
Pompey's  army  at  Pharsalia  turned  their 
backs  for  fear  their  beauty  should  be 
spoiled,  and  we  have  no  evidence  but  that 
of  their  enemies  for  the  statement,  the  gay 
young  nobles  of  France  flung  themselves  on 
the  cold  steel  of  the  English  infantry,  and 
the  Iron  Duke  acknowledged  that,  with  all 
their  shortcomings,  "the  London  puppies 
fought  well."  It  may  be  stated,  as  an  axiom, 
that  no  man  can  be  a  genuine  beau  without 
possessing  some  intellectual  or  moral  force  to 
carry  him  to  the  front.  If  it  is  objected  that 
there  have  been  famous  leaders  of  fashion  de- 
ficient in  force  of  will  and  mind,  the  answer 
suggests  itself;  the  record  is  a  defective  one, 


130  Royal  and  Noted  Beaux. 

and  the  world  does  not  really  know  its  beaux. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  type  that  conies  first 
to  the  recollection,  Beau  Brummel.  In  the 
infinite  number  of  anecdotes  related  of  him, 
very  few  are  in  any  way  creditable  to  his 
heart,  but  there  is  the  stamp  on  nearly  every 
one  of  a  strong  will  and  a  keen  and  ready 
wit,  He  was  asked  if  he  had  been  intimate 
with  William  IV,  while  yet  Duke  of  Clarence, 
and  in  the  navy.  "  I  cannot  say  I  was,1'  he 
answered.  "  The  man  did  very  well  to  wear  a 
cocked  hat,  and  walk  about  the  quarter-deck 
crying  'Luff!'  But  he  was  so  rough  and  un- 
civilized that  I  was  obliged  to  cut  him."  Like 
this,  in  insolence  and  readiness,  was  his  reply, 
when  in  exile  at  Caen,  to  the  question  whether 
he  had  attended  the  ball  given  by  the  city  in 
honor  of  Louis  Philippe's  visit.  Brummel 
was  an  ultra  conservative  in  politics,  and  de- 
tested the  monarchy  of  July.  "The  King's 
ball?"  he  asked.  "What  king?"  "What 
king  ?  The  French  king,  to  be  sure ;  Louis 
Philippe."  "  Oh  !"  said  Brummel, "  you  mean 
the  Duke  of  Orleans.  No ;  I  did  not  go,  but 
I  sent  my  servant."  We  may  find  various 
unamiable  qualities  in  the  man  who  made 


Royal  and  Noted  Beaux.  131 

these  remarks,  but  they  imply  real  force.  Not 
every  leader  of  fashion  was  equal  to  Brummel, 
but  some  were  superior  to  him  in  mind  and 
character,  and  almost  all  had  real  gifts  to 
make  them  not  unworthy  of  their  place. 
Where,  in  modern  times,  are  we  to  find  a 
greater  dandy  than  the  famous  minister  of 
Augustus  III  of  Saxony  and  Poland,  Count 
Briihl,  with  his  four  hundred  dresses,  his 
luxurious  table,  his  milk  poultices  to  pre- 
serve the  delicacy  of  his  complexion?  But 
his  taste  was  equal  to  his  love  of  dress,  and 
the  Dresden  Gallery  was  almost  the  work  of 
his  master  and  himself. 

Talleyrand  was  not  less  a  dandy  than  a 
diplomatist.  When  Lord  Sefton  went  to  see 
him  he  found  the  Prince  in  the  hands  of  two 
valets  de  chambre,  while  a  third,  who  was 
training  for  his  duties  in  this  line,  looked  on 

O  ' 

at  what  was  done.  The  Prince  was  in  a  loose 
flannel  gown;  his  long  locks,  which  were 
rather  scanty,  were  twisted  and  crepus  with  a 
curling-iron,  saturated  with  powder  and  po- 
matum, and  then  arranged  with  great  care 
into  snowy  ringlets.  When  the  news  of 
Napoleon's  landing  at  Cannes  reached  Vienna, 


132  Royal  and  Noted  Beaux. 

where  the  Congress  was  in  session,  the  des- 
patch was  brought  to  Talleyrand  by  his 
niece,  who  was  to  attend  a  ball  that  night. 
The  Prince  was,  at  the  moment,  havinsr  him- 

'  O 

self  perfumed  with  essences  by  his  valet,  and 
bade  his  niece  open  the  dispatch.  She  read 
it  out :  "  Napoleon  has  escaped  from  Elba," 
and  let  the  paper  drop,  with  the  exclama- 
tion :  "  Good  heavens !  And  my  ball !"  "  Say 
nothing,  my  child,"  calmly  replied  Talleyrand, 
holding  out  his  hands  to  the  valet ;  "you  shall 
have  your  ball."  Not  the  just  man  in  Horace's 
ode  was  more  unmoved  in  the  crash  of  the 
universe  than  this  crafty  schemer  and  exqui- 
site. His  Austrian  counterpart,  Metternich, 
was  equally  high-bred  and  refined,  and  care- 
ful of  the  proprieties  and  elegances  of  costume. 
It  is  enough  to  name  two  or  three  of  these 
celebrated  leaders,  to  refute  the  crude  and 
hasty  generalizations  which  associate  atten- 
tion to  dress  with  incapacity  for  matters 
conventionally  called  serious. 

Of  beaux  among  modern  princes  the  house 
of  Orleans  has  had  at  least  two  very  remark- 
able ones,  the  Regent,  and  his  great-grandson 
Egalite".  The  profligate  career  of  the  Regent 


Royal  and  Noted  Beaux.  133 

should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
master  in  the  art  of  dress,  and  knew  how  to 
bring  to  bear  upon  style  in  costume  his 
accomplishments  as  a  painter  and  engraver. 
Egalite  deserves  especial  remembrance  as  a 
startling  innovator  rather  than  as  a  model  of 
elegant  dressing,  and  yet  his  taste  stamped 
him,  no  less  than  his  courage,  in  leading  the 
inevitable  movement  toward  the  more  sim- 
plified costume.  He  was  the  first  noble  to 
set  the  fashion  of  wearing  pantaloons  instead 
of  breeches,  and  boots  instead  of  low  shoes 
with  buckles,  and  to  discard  hair-powder.  It 
is  true  that  when  he  was  borne  to  his  execu- 
tion he  powdered  his  hair  in  the  old  high- 
bred style,  and  went  to  meet  death  with  a 
serene  courage  that  would  have  redeemed 
even  a  worse  career  than  his. 

The  reign  of  Anne  brought  in  a  style  of 
costume  in  England  that  made  fine  dressing 
more  difficult  than  it  had  ever  been,  so  un- 
graceful were  the  outlines  and  the  shapes. 
It  was  not  easy  for  any  one  to  look  his  best 
in  a  square-cut  coat  and  long-flapped  waist- 
coat, the  skirts  of  the  coat  stiffened  out  with 
wire  or  buckram,  with  a  sword  looking  out 


134  Royal  and  Noted  Beaux. 

between  the  skirts,  square-toed  shoes,  and 
long  curled  perukes  crowned  by  small  three- 
cornered  hats.  There  was  little  of  the 
aesthetic  in  the  line  of  the  Georges,  and  the 
services  rendered  by  them  to  English  taste 
in  attire  have  been  of  very  little  account. 
George  the  Fourth  is,  of  course,  the  only  one 
of  the  line  who  seems  to  claim  especial  recog- 
nition as  a  man  of  fashion  and  genuine  appre- 
ciation of  good  dressing,  but  one  is  inclined 
to  think,  on  examination  of  the  matter,  that 
his  reputation  has  been  in  a  great  measure 
made  for  him,  and  that  his  personal  contri- 
butions to  the  progress  of  this  art  have  by 
no  means  equaled  those  of  many  a  less 
famous  man.  Brummel  made  much  of  the 
Prince's  renown  as  an  arbiter  of  fashion. 
"The  Prince,"  said  a  famous  tailor,  "  wears 
superfine,  and  Mr.  Brummel  the  Bath  coat- 
ing; it  is  immaterial  which  you  choose,  Sir 
John ;  suppose  we  say  the  Bath  coating — I 
think  Mr.  Brummel  has  a  trifle  the  pref- 
erence." This  was  stating  the  case  mildly,  as 
became  a  lo;yal  Briton,  for  society  gave  the 
Beau  a  decided  preference.  The  Prince  has 
been  so  often  the  subject  of  biographers  and 


Royal  and  Noted  Beaux.  135 

essayists  that  it  is  probable  we  see  very  little 
of  the  real  man.  He  has  been  praised  and 
abused  without  let  or  stint,  and  most  persons 
think  of  him  as  the  "  fat  friend,"  pinched  in 
his  tight  clothes,  and  considerably  disguised 
with  drink.  Fortune  was  unkind  to  him  in 
one  respect,  at  least.  If  he  had  not  been  a 
Prince,  and  a  King,  he  would  have  left  a  less 
contemptible  name ;  but  he  has  secured  an 
immortality  of  a  kind,  since  no  one  can  cast 
a  glance  over  the  history  of  European  cos- 
tume without  taking  in  George  IV.  He  had 
the  merit,  also,  of  wishing  to  have  done 
something  in  active  life,  and  a  vanity  that 
would  have  the  facts  give  way  to  its  per- 
sistent whim,  as  in  his  famous  delusion,  the 
result  of  assiduous  lying  on  the  subject,  that 
he  had  been  present  at  Waterloo.  His  ap- 
peal to  Wellington  is  well  known :  "  You 
remember,  Arthur,  how  I  led  that  charge  ?" 
"•  I  remember  having  heard  your  Majesty  say 
so,"  was  all  that  could  be  got  from  the  Duke. 
Vanity  of  this  sort  is  admirable  in  its  way, 
and,  if  the  King  had  not  been  so  fat,  and 
could  have  kept  sober,  he  might  have  done 
real  service  to  the  cause  of  scientific  dress- 


136  Royal  and  Noted  Beaux. 

ing.  His  career  stretches  over  the  gulf  be- 
tween the  last  days  of  the  French  monarchy 
and  the  new  order  of  things  after  the  over- 
throw of  Napoleon.  In  that  time  the 
changes  in  France  were  bewildering,  in  cos- 
tume as  in  politics.  At  the  court  of  Louis 
XVI  dressing  was  the  serious  business  of  the 
day.  The  Comte  de  Provence,  afterward 
Louis  XVIII,  was  too  fond  of  his  Horace  and 
his  table  to  be  a  leader  of  fashion,  but 
d'Artois,  who  became  Charles  X,  was  an  ex- 
quisite, entirely  devoted  to  dress,  flirting,  and 
hunting.  When  his  breeches  were  to  be  put 
on — he  wore  them  very  tight — this  was  the 
process :  Four  valets  took  their  places  in 
due  order;  two  held  the  breeches  open  at  a 
proper  height;  the  other  two,  always  tall 
and  powerful  men,  raised  the  Prince  from  the 
floor  and  lowered  him  gradually  into  the  gar- 
ment, until  it  fitted  like  a  second  skin.  It  is 
not  recorded  that  the  Comte  d'Artois  used 
this  style  of  breeches  for  sitting  in  ;  but  the 
gallants  of  the  day  dressed  as  he  did.  The 
visit  of  Franklin  to  this  brilliant  court  pro- 
duced an  extraordinary  effect.  Ribbons  and 
laces,  curls  and  embroidery,  disappeared  as 


Royal  and  Noted  Beaux.  137 

if  by  magic,  and  nothing  was  to  be  seen  but 
straight-cut  hair  and  straight  brown  coats. 
Just  before  the  Revolution  broke  out,  the 
hat  began  to  show  itself  in  the  round  up- 
right shape  which  has  sat  upon  the  heads  of 
mankind  ever  since,  like  an  extinguisher  of 
all  grace.  The  changes  under  the  Revolu- 
tion were  like  the  shapes  in  a  kaleidoscope. 
The  Athenians,  the  Romans,  the  incroyablesy 
the  merveilleux,  the  hair  worn  a  la  Titus,  the 
dresses  a  la  Cybele,  and  a  thousand  other  ex- 
travagant costumes  and  .parts  of  costumes 
culminating  in  the  dress  a  la  sauvage,  that 
is,  in  no  dress  at  all,  made  an  assemblage  of 
French  people  look  like  a  party  of  escaped 
lunatics.  The  Empire  reduced  all  this  to 
order  of  a  formal  and  administrative  kind, 
but  Napoleon  had  his  mind  too  much  occu- 
pied with  other  grave  concerns  to  give  to 
dress  the  attention  it  demanded. 

The  democratic  constitution  of  society  at 
this  period,  immediately  succeeding  the  wild 
fervor  of  the  Revolution,  was,  moreover,  un- 
favorable to  a  cultivated  taste  in  dress,  and 
in  place  of  elegance  there  was  the  plainness 
affected  by  Napoleon,  and  the  theatrical  dis- 


138  Royal  and  Noted  Beaux. 

play  of  Murat,  King  Franconi.  The  English 
taste  has  prevailed  more  and  more  in  France 
since  the  Restoration,  with  the  interruption 
of  the  second  Empire,  with  its  extravagant 
parade  and  ostentation.  It  is  not  a  little  re- 
markable to  find  that  courts  so  splendid  as 
those  of  Austria,  Russia,  and  Germany,  have 
counted  for  nothing  in  their  influence  on  cos- 
tume. With  all  their  resources  they  have 
been  content  to  take  the  law  from  France 
and  England,  which  are  the  two  arbiters  of 
modern  fashion,  the  predominating  influence 
to-day  being  the  English.  This  is  personified 
in  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  can  hardly  be 
said  to  create,  so  much  as  he  stands  for,  the 
English  taste,  since  this  was  as  clearly  the 
prevailing  taste  before  he  came  upon  the 
scene  as  it  has  been  since.  In  truth,  one 
great  purpose  served  in  English  civilization 
by  the  Piince  of  Wales  is  that  he  presents  a 
type,  visible  to  all,  and  recognizable,  of  the 
tendencies  in  costumes.  To  know  what  is 
the  right  thing  to  wear,  men  have  but  to  look 
at  the  embodiment  of  the  artistic  ideas  in  the 
person  of  the  heir-apparent ;  and  the  dignity 
of  his  station  and  position  gives  to  his  ex- 


Itoyal  and  Noted  Beaux.  139 

ample  an  irresistible  force  which  but  few 
written  edicts  possess.  Leaders  of  fashion 
there  will  be — under  him ;  but  it  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  sound  conclusion  that  there  will 
be  no  Beau  Brummel  to  dispute  pre-eminence 
with  a  future  Prince  of  Wales.  The  move- 
ment toward  simplicity  in  dress  has  gone  so 
far,  that  we  may  anticipate  the  future  un- 
disturbed rule  in  fashion  of  the  heir  to  the 
monarchy. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

GOING   TO    THE   TAILOE. 

De  Vusage  de  se  vetir. — MONTAIGNE. 

WHEN  you  make  up  your  mind  to  go  to 
your  tailor,  be  sure  and  take  some  friend 
whose  critical  faculty  has  reached  the  most 
extreme  development.  Mind  you,  he  must 
be  an  arch-pessimist,  who  accepts  nothing  on 
the  say-so.  If  your  companion  be  one  of  the 
other  sex,  take  pains  that  she  has  passed  the 
enthusiastic  days  of  youth ;  that  her  jaws  are 
square  and  firmly  set,  her  eyes  steel-gray  and 
gifted  with  an  arctic  scrutiny,  and  her  man- 
date never  to  be  disputed.  All  artist-tailors 
warm  to,  and,  indeed,  hanker  after  such  as- 
sistant patrons.  Their  lives  would  be  miser- 
able without  they  crossed  the  door-sill  daily. 
Notice  the  cheerful  smile  and  urbane  manners 
with  which  your  tailor  mentally  sums  up 
your  companion's  capacity  for  detail.  He 
perceives  he  is  in  for  a  prolonged  pro- 
fessional stance,  and  although  well-nigh  prof- 
itless in  the  end,  he  is  aware  that  he  will  be 


Going  to  the  Tailor.  141 

taught,  in  several  editions  of  caustic  volu- 
bility, how  to  become  a  real  maker  and  fitter. 
Your  demeanor  throughout  should  be  quiet, 
with  an  outspoken  and  definite  purpose  to 
have  a  good  suit  of  clothes  of  the  most 
fashionable  cut  and  fabric.  The  goods  are 
inspected  in  detail,  and  finally  you  select  a 
pleasing  pattern,  with  "I  think  that  will 
do!" 

"  Why,  my  dear,"  exclaims  your  companion, 
"you  can  get  a  much  handsomer  check  at 
Blank,  Blank  &  Co.'s,  and  think  of  a  nice 
watch  thrown  in." 

"  True,  Janet,"  is  the  response ;  "  but  you 
know  I  never  wear  ready-made  clothing." 

"If  you  will  permit  me,  madame,"  inter- 
poses the  merchant,  meekly,"  there  is  a  vast 
difference  between  the  durability,  and  other 
indispensable  qualities,  of  cloths  used  in  the 
different  grades  of  our  business.  A  lady  of 
your  excellent  judgment  would  certainly  not 
wish  to  have  your  husband  attired  in  ap- 
parel that  would  have  one  color  to-day, 
a  blending  of  shades  to-morrow,  and  none 
at  all  on  the  third.  Nor  would  you  care 
to  have  his  shapely  figure  deformed  by 


142  Going  to  the  Tailor. 

a  costume  of  a  kind  in  every  way  unsuited 
to  a  gentleman." 

A  look  of  calm  satisfaction  lights  up  the 
countenance  of  his  patron,  but  Janet  is  not 
to  be  mollified  or  cajoled  by  any  such  spe- 
cious talk  as  this — not  she. 

"  Such  statements,"  she  maintains,  "  are  all 
very  well,  when  coming  from  tailors  who  are 
simple  money-makers,  any  way ;  but  I  do  not 
see  why  you  cannot  get  just  as  good  clothes 
at  any  house,  on  Sixth  avenue,  or  on  Eighth 
avenue,  for  less  than  one-half  the  money,  as 
you  can  here  in  Fifth  avenue." 

"  Madame,"  the  tailor  responds,  with  defer- 
ence, "  you  can,  of  course,  buy  garments  at  the 
places  and  prices  you  name.  So  you  can  get 
your  dinner  in  Sixth  avenue  for  fifteen  cents, 
and  one  with  the  same  name  at  Delmonico's 
for  a  dollar  and  a  half." 

"  These  goods,  then,  are  so  much  superior 
to  the  others?" 

"  They  are.  No  first-class  tailor  will  carry 
in  his  stock  an  imitation  or  fraudulent  article, 
any  more  than  would  Tiffany  undertake  to 
manufacture  for  you  a  set  of  bogus  jewelry, 
or  to  set  a  ton  of  Parisian  diamonds." 


Going  to  the  Tailor.  143 

You  now  announce  your  intention  to  stand 
by  your  first  choice,  when  Janet  says : 

"  But  remember,  Grus,  I  am  to  have  a  new 
circular,  and  where  will  the  money  come 
from?" 

And  thus,  after  Janet  has  ventilated  her- 
self thoroughly  as  to  price  and  pattern,  and 
in  quite  diplomatic  language  set  the  merchant 
down  as  a  heartless  sharp,  it  is  settled  that 
the  measure  shall  be  taken  and  the  suit  shall 
be  fitted  before  being  made  up.  The  day  is 
appointed,  and  you  sail  forth  to  the  tailor's, 
and  stand  encumbered  with  a  sleeveless  coat, 
a  single  trouser,  and  a  quantity  of  thread, 
chalk,  canvas,  and  all  of  the  mysteries  that 
go  to  make  form  and  outline.  Your  watchful 
Janet  is  with  you.  She  is  not  pleased  with 
the  cutter's  work  at  all ;  the  ensemble  is  too 
much  that  of  a  gambler;  the  trousers  are 
too  suggestive  of  the  dude, — they  should  be 
twice  as  large ;  when  it  is  perceived  that  the 
cloth  will  not  admit  of  such  a  radical  change. 
The  coat  has  the  waist  too  low ;  the  collar  is 
not  stylish, — it  must  be  enlarged;  and  the 
shoulders  are  too  absurd  for  anything. 

"What  a  pity  it  is,"  observes  Janet,  "that 


144  Going  to  the  Tailor. 

tailors  have  no  eyes  for  proportion.  It  is  true 
there  are  exceptions  sometimes,  as  in  the  case 
of  my  lamented  father,  whose  tailor  in  East 
Broadway  made  him  look  spick-and-span !" 

The  tailor  may  get  a  little  nervous  at  this; 
but  what  matters  that,  he  has  no  sensibilities. 
Janet  insisting  upon  literal  obedience  to  her 
alterations,  you  take  your  departure,  await- 
ing the  day  of  readiness.  It  soon  arrives, 
and  again  you  invade  the  shop.  You  stand 
up  before  mirrors,  which  reflect  every  angle 
and  curve  of  your  body,  and  now  you  are  to 
be  the  satisfied  one.  To  your  horror,  you 
stand  in  about  as  cranky  a  suit  of  clothes  as 
could  be  devised  by  the  joint  and  perverse 
ingenuity  of  man  and  woman.  You  behold 
your  ghastly  smile  in  the  pier-glass,  a  cold 
sweat  overspreads  your  body,  and,  with 
awakening  mind,  you  draw  the  true  moral 
of  the  advantage  of  having  outside  advice 
when  you  go  to  your  tailor  for  an  oiitfit  of 
fashionable  garments. 

Let  the  law,  then,  be  laid  down,  for  tailors 
and  purchasers  alike,  that  there  are  no  ar- 
ticles figuring  in  merchandise  which  should 
be  the  subject  of  sole  agreement  between 


Going  to  the  Tailor. 


145 


maker  and  patron  to  a  greater  extent  than 
the  garments  constituting  men's  wear.  No 
outside  views  should  be  invited  or  received. 


THE  CRITICAL   FRIEND. 


Your  adviser  has  not  got  to  wear  the  clothes ; 
they  do  not  concern  his  comfort  or  presenta- 
bility ;  and,  furthermore,  the  philosopher  has 


146  Going  to  the  Tailor. 

told  us,  truly,  "  There  is  something  in  the 
mal-aise  of  our  best  friends  which  does  not 
displease  us."  In  the  experience  of  every 
one,  who  has  been  many  years  in  the  craft, 
there  are  hundreds  of  anecdotes  that  could 
be  told  of  the  purely  malicious  suggestions 
of  apparent  friends  to  those  purchasing  cloth- 
ing ;  but  this  curious  phase  of  human  nature, 
let  it  be  said,  belongs  oftener  to  women 
than  to  men.  The  true  way,  therefore,  is  to 
go  to  that  maker  who  has  your  confidence, 
ascertain  for  what  purpose  you  want  your 
suit  of  clothes,  and  leave  the  designing  to 
him  ;  otherwise,  you  will  share  the  fate  of 
many  others  who  have  called  in  the  layman's 
aid  in  this  important  matter  of  dressing  in 
fashionable  garments. 

"  A  few  are  good;  some  well  enough: 
But  most,  I  own,  are  wretched  stuff." 

Allusion  has  been  made  elsewhere  to  the 
selection  of  a  good  tailor,  and  this  task  is 
regarded  by  many  gentlemen  as  very  diffi- 
cult ;  yet  it  is  not  so.  It  is  a  very  simple 
matter  to  understand  that  those  who  have 
won  distinction  for  the  finest  work  are  gov- 


Going  to  the  Tailor.  147 

erned  in  their  prosperity  by  the  same  laws 
of  supply  and  demand  which  relate  to  the 
other  arts,  or  to  similar  kinds  of  merchan- 
dise. You  will  therefore  find  those  who 
belong  to  the  topmost  round  grouped  about 
the  fashionable  part  of  the  city  in  close  prox- 
imity to  the  hotel  centre,  and,  in  New  York, 
tenanting  modern  mansions  which  have  been 
refitted  for  their  special  uses  on  Fifth  avenue ; 
and  the  greater  the  prosperity,  and  the  more 
refined  the  taste,  of  the  tailor,  the  more  at- 
tractive will  be  found  his  shop.  Noblesse 
oblige ;  and  the  higher  the  walk  in  life,  and 
the  higher  attainments  in  that  walk,  the 
greater  the  responsibilities.  Let  us  visit  one 
of  these  shops,  or,  if  the  American  citizen 
prefers  it,  one  of  the  "  swell  stores."  Those 
of  the  superlative,  of  the  best  form,  are 
nearly  all  on  Fifth  avenue,  and,  in  some 
cases,  are  owned  by  their  tenants,  and  the 
space  occupied  for  the  goods  and  cutters 
would  rent  at  from  $5000  to  $7000  a  year. 
The  entrance  in  almost  all  cases  is  up  a 
flight  of  steps  to  what  was  formerly  the  par- 
lors. This  front  room,  facing  on  the  avenue, 
is  devoted  to  a  share  of  the  best  imported 


148  Going  to  ih#  Tailor. 

fabrics,  while  further  back  may  be  found 
the  dressing-room,  the  cutter's  table,  and  all 
the  paraphernalia  of  the  guild.  You  may 
enter  at  almost  any  hour  of  the  day,  and 
you  will  rarely  meet  more  than  several  cus- 
tomers, because  one  of  this  class  of  pro- 
prietors considers  himself  as  doing  a  thriving 
business  if  he  takes  a  half  dozen  orders  a 
day.  Such  a  patronage  he  is  better  pleased 
with  than  a  perfect  avalanche  of  customers ; 
for  he  can  give  his  personal  attention  to 
every  garment  that  leaves  the  shop,  and  see 
that  each  one  is  thoroughly  satisfied.  Wan- 
dering, for  instance,  through  the  author's 
spacious  parlors,  we  found  the  walls  hung 
with  costly  pictures  from  the  studios  of 
celebrated  foreign  and  American  artists. 
There  we  find  a  superb  Corot,  showing  all 
the  delicate  tree  and  shrub  forms,  and  mys- 
terious and  poetical  sky  effects,  which  made 
the  great  French  painter  one  of  the  masters 
of  the  salon ;  and  beyond  is  a  superb  Diaz, 
one  of  those  minutely  drawn  and  clearly 
expressed  land-and-water-scape  compositions, 
meadowlike  in  prevailing  color,  with  an  at- 
mosphere that  carries  the  feeling  that,  for  its 


Going  to  the  Tailor.  149 

absolute  noiselessness,  you  can  hear  the 
hum  of  distant  bees  and  clear  notes  of  remote 
chimes  ringing  out  on  the  sun-lit  air.  Then 
there  is  the  masterpiece  of  the  American 
painter,  Edgar  M.  Ward, — a  large  out-doors 
representing  a  grouping  at  Pontaven  in  Brit- 
tany, in  which  those  strong  peasant  types 
stand  out  with  miraculous  boldness  and 
spirit.  There  is  a  winter,  too,  by  Macy, 
with  the  leafless  branches  and  snow-covered 
trunks,  the  true  spirit  of  Christmas-tide, 
when 

"  The  Yule-log  burns, 
Loud  sounds  the  horn 
That  echoes  in 
Christ's  natal  morn." 

J.  Gr.  Brown,  with  his  tatterdemalion  char- 
acters, an  example  of  which  is  Used  Up, 
and  others  of  equal  celebrity,  adorn  the 
apartments.  We  behold  English  park  scen- 
ery, lone  situations,  cavaliers,  and  a  great 
variety  in  figure  and  landscape  art. 

How  different  all  of  this,  where  you  can 
linger  among  gems  like  these,  and  sit  pa- 
tiently down  to  have  yourself  taken  in  hand 
by  a  true  artist  who  can  appreciate  your 


150  Going  to  the  Tailor. 

needs,  from  a  visit  to  one  of  the  crowded  ma- 
chine clothes  establishments,  to  receive  scant 
attention,  to  be  told  that  the  first  garment 
snatched  up  is  a  perfect  fit,  and  then  to  quit 
the  store  with  your  purchase  without  remedy 
against  the  sudden  collapse  of  your  suit,  the 
falling  off  of  the  buttons,  the  fading  of  the 
colors,  the  ripping  of  the  seams — and  that 
feeling  of  profound  disgust  that  you  have 
exchanged  your  good  money  for  worthless 
trash. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

DRESS,    AS    WE   SEE   IT    IN    THE    ARTS. 

A  SUBJECT  so  wide  and  vast  as  the  pres- 
ent must  be  barely  more  than  touched  upon 
in  some  of  its  aspects,  and  to  do  even  this 
requires  a  severe  limitation  of  the  field. 
Antiquity  must  be  left  out,  the  middle  ages 
must  be  passed  over,  and  modern  times  must 
be  treated  as  beginning  with  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  How  far  this  manner  of 
looking  at  the  subject  may  be  the  right  one, 
must  be  left  to  the  reader's  judgment  to  de- 
cide— but  it  can  be  justified.  The  remains 
of  antiquity,  relating  to  a  society  and  a  civil- 
ization so  unlike  our  own,  have  special  claims 
upon  our  attention  for  their  intrinsic  worth 
and  beauty ;  but,  so  far  as  they  are  held  up 
as  types  for  artists  to  imitate,  they  have  had 
a  depressing  effect  upon  modern  art,  and  have 
made  the  conventional  take  the  place,  in  the 
minds  of  students,  that  should  have  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  truthful  and  the  natural. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  modern  sculp- 


152          Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts. 

tors,  most  of  whom  work  with  the  fear  of 
Greece  before  their  eyes,  as  indeed  they 
should,  so  far  as  the  fear  of  Greece  means 
the  admiration  of  what  is  best,  and  the  dread 
of  doing  a  work  unworthy  to  be  studied. 
But  when  this  fear  means  only  a  servile  imi- 
tation of  costumes  and  of  details  for  modern 
figures,  which  are  appropriate  only  in  the 
statues  of  antiquity,  it  is  a  fear  fatal  to  any 
real  excellence.  We  have  but  to  glance  at 
the  statues  in  what  is  called  antique  costume, 
set  up  all  over  the  land,  to  feel  that,  what- 
ever the  shortcomings  and  the  imperfections 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world,  whatever 
the  sins  and  the  expiation  that  came  upon 
the  heathen,  much  at  least  was  spared  to 
them ;  they  could  not  foresee  the  deplorable 
things  that  were  to  be  called  "  Statues  after 
the  Antique."  The  painters  have  been  more 
fortunate  than  the  sculptors.  The  Greek 
paintings  have  perished ;  and  even  though 
there  are  all  the  masterpieces  of  the  great 
schools  to  keep  the  artists  of  to-day  under 
their  shadow,  the  element  of  color  asserts 
itself  in  behalf  of  every  one  who  paints,  and 
the  works,  warm  with  the  light  of  to-day,  at- 


Drew,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts.  153 

tract  and  gain  the  ready  sympathies  of  the 
spectator,  who  does  not  feel  himself  called 
upon  for  an  effort  of  the  imagination  in  order 
to  grasp  what  is  set  before  him.  This  seems 
to  be  an  undeniable  truth,  that  holds  good 
even  in  what  should  bring  out  an  independ- 
ent play  of  mind  in  the  artist,  because  its 
very  limitations  make  his  task  more  easy; 
that  is,  in  portrait  sculpture.  Why  is  it 
that,  even  when  the  statue  of  a  modern  man 
is  dressed  in  modern  costume,  such  as  the 
original  wore,  the  figure  is  made  to  testify 
that,  if  it  were  alive,  it  could  not  walk  ? — and 
dressed  in  modern  costume  he  should  be,  in 
his  statue,  if  that  was  the  costume  he  wore 
in  life.  The  opinion  of  an  artist- tail  or  is  the 
right  one  in  this  matter.  Men  do  not,  nowa- 
days, believe  in  demi-gods,  or  sons  of  Venus 
and  Anchises,  but  in  men  like  themselves, 
living  and  working  in  the  white  light  of  the 
real  day;  and  when  it  is  proposed  to  set  up 
the  memorial  figure  of  a  man,  how  heroic 
soever,  the  first  condition  to  be  met  is  that 
the  figure  shall  be  the  counterfeit  "present- 
ment of  the  real  man.  Washington,  as  he 
sits  on  his  long  box,  in  the  ground  behind 


154          Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts. 

the  capitol,  glowering  at  Persico's  Columbus 
playing  bowls,  is  an  astonishment  and  a  con- 
fusion to  the  beholder.  What  tailor,  proficient 
in  his  art,  would  have  accepted  such  a  figure 
for  his  private  collection  of  art- works  ?  Yet 
Greenough  holds  himself  high  as  a  sculptor 
and  was  at  one  time  the  best  we  could 
show  in  his  line,  and  would  have  felt  himself 
insulted,  if  he  had  been  advised  to  take  coun- 
sel with  a  tailor.  The  old  proverb  about 
the  cobbler  confining  himself  to  his  last  is 
sure  to  be  quoted  on  such  occasions,  and 
nearly  always,  as  if  it  could  have  but  one 
meaning. 

It  has,  on  the  contrary,  two  meanings. 
The  sculptor,  as  his  unlucky  figures  declare, 
undertakes  continually  to  cobble  where  he 
has  no  skill,  and  to  know  better  than  the 
real  artist.  When  he  has  succeeded  in  putting 
down  the  tailor  who  criticises  the  head  of 
the  statue,  he  turns  complacently  round  and 
puts  a  coat  on  the  figure  of  a  cut  that  would 
make  a  living  man  who  wore  it  the  laughing- 
stock of  the  street.  It  is  true  that  sculptors 
can  be  made  to  learn  in  these  matters,  for 
some  things  can  be  done  as  well  as  others ; 


Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts.  155 

but  then  some  men  will  not  do  them.     Look, 
for    instance,  at  .the    monuments  set  up  in 


THE  TRUE   ARTIST-TAILOR. 


Union  Square,  and  compare,  if  you  have  the 
heart  to   do   it,  any  other  with  Bartholdi's 


156          Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts. 

Lafayette,  the  only  one  among  them  that 
could,  if  suddenly  endowed  with  life,  get 
down  and  walk  off  unassisted. 

The  art  of  the  costumer  is  simplifying  the 
labor  of  painters  and  sculptors,  by  making 
the  fashionable  dress  less  of  a  disguise  than 
it  has  been.  The  padded  shoulders  have 
ceased  to  be  characteristic  of  American  dress, 
the  napping  skirts  have  gone  to  the  limbo  of 
forgotten  things,  the  trousers  no  longer  re- 
semble the  windsail  of  an  ocean  steamer. 
The  American,  properly  attired,  looks  now, 
from  whichever  side  seen,  like  a  being  con- 
structed on  the  right  anatomical  principles, 
which  must  be  known  by  every  artist  that 
attempts  to  design  the  human  form  or  to 
clothe  it ;  and  it  should  be  easy  to  make 
each  of  these  aid,  instead  of  embarrassing, 
the  other. 

It  will  be  said  that  the  tailor  has  to  make 
the  best  of  an  ill-shaped  man,  and  give  him  a 
good  appearance,  while  the  sculptor  or  the 
painter  must  present  a  historical  character 
with  all  his  warts,  as  Cromwell  expressed  it. 
There  is  but  a  little  truth  in  this.  The 
sculptor  may  give  all  the  ugly  points  of  his 


Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts.  157 

subject,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  generally 
does  nothing  of  the  kind.  Take  a  well- 
known  historical  occasion  in  the  life  of  Lin- 
coln. Most  New  Yorkers  will  recall  his 
famous  debate  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  at 
Cooper  Institute,  before  he  had  been  thought 
of  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  When 
the  evening  came,  Lincoln  appeared  on  the 
platform  in  an  old,  creased  broadcloth  suit, 
dusty  with  travel,  for  he  had  but  just  reached 
the  city  ;  long  and  awkward  looking,  he  pre- 
sented a  very  unfavorable  contrast  to  the 
Little  Giant,  as  people  then  delighted  to  call 
Douglas,  and  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  began  to  think  the  evening  was 
to  be  a  failure ;  but,  when  his  moment  came, 
Lincoln  amazed  everybody  by  the  force  and 
vigor  of  his  speech,  and  the  effort  of  that 
night  secured  his  nomination.  If  a  sculptor 
were  charged  to  reproduce  this  scene,  would 
he  make  the  shabby  clothes  in  marble? 
Clearly  not,  for  the  shabbiness  was  not  part 
of  the  force  that  carried  Lincoln  through  that 
night.  The  sculptor  would  represent  the 
man  as  nearly  as  he  could,  and  bring  out  in 
the  statue  whatever  good  point  lie  found  in 


158         Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts. 

his  model, — that  is  to  say,  he  would  idealize, 
so  as  to  make  his  subject  the  more  real ;  and 
this  is  what  the  tailor-artist  does  with  the 
forms  that  come  into  his  hands.  In  each 
case  the  man  is  made  to  appear  at  his  best, 
but  the  best,  as  the  artist  sees  it,  really  exists 
in  the  model.  It  is  the  old  story,  of  the  eye 
seeing  what  it.  brings  with  it  the  power  to 
see.  "  Mr.  Turner,"  said  a  lady  to  the  great 
painter,  "  I  don't  see  the  effects  in  nature  that 
you  put  into  your  pictures."  "  Don't  you 
wish  you  could  ?"  replied  Turner. 

The  conclusion  forced  upon  us  by  the 
study  of  the  treatment  of  dress  in  art  is  that 
the  artist  should  represent  only  what  is  true 
to  the  time  and  the  subject.  He  should 
keep  to  the  facts  of  costume  as  much  as  to 
the  facts  of  anatomy  and  of  physiognomy, 
and  no  more ;  and  then,  with  conscientious 
study  of  his  task,  and  the  due  admixture  of 
brains  with  his  materials,  he  must  produce 
work  that  will  deserve  and  achieve  renown. 
It  is  easy  to  say,  as  men  often  do  say,  that 
the  age  is  unpoetical,  and  that  the  costume  of 
to-day  does  not  lend  itself  to  heroic  treat- 
ment. This  is  the  excuse  of  mere  mediocrity, 


Dress,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Arts,          159 

unequal  to  a  struggle  with  the  actual,  because 
it  has  no  insight  into  the  ideal.  The  heroic 
and  the  poetical  are  permanent  elements  in 
every  society,  and  a  great  character  will 
dignify  every  and  any  costume,  if  only  this 
be  the  work  of  an  artist. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

THE    REIGN    OF   THE    BRASS    BUTTON. 

PARADOXICAL  as  it  may  seem,  America 
presents  at  once  the  best  and  the  worst 
field  for  him  of  the  brass  button.  Boast  as 
we  may  of  our  love  of  peace,  our  attachment 
to  liberty  and  all  its  homely  insignia,  our 
fidelity  to  the  industrial  arts,  and  consequent 
abhorrence  of  life  in  the  barracks,  yet  the 
American  is  fond  of  military  pageantry,  and 
men,  women,  and  children,  will  swarm  the 
streets  to  view  a  passing  regiment,  while  an 
'army  corps  of  thirty  thousand  veteran  troops, 
marching  to  stirring  national  music,  in  a 
European  capital,  will  hardly  attract  the  at- 
tention of  passing  pedestrians  along  the 
thoroughfare.  Yet,  true  it  is,  our  martial 
spectacles  are  sorry  parades  compared  with 
those  of  the  Old  World,  and  every  unbiased 
traveler  must  admit  this  unpalatable  truth. 
While  much  of  our  deficiency  is  due  to 
meagre  numbers,  the  apparent  shabbinQss  of 
armed  commands  comes  solely  from  the  pie- 


The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button.        161 

beian  cut  and  fabric  of  the  citizen  or  regular 
soldiery.  Our  spirit  of  imitation  of  Euro- 
pean uniforms  and  accoutrements,  vaguely 
carried  out,  leaves  us  no  distinct  and  national 
costume  for  the  army  and  navy ;  but,  follow- 
ing the  stupid  innovations  and  absurd  inven- 
tions of  the  bureaucracy  at  Washington,  we 
have  scarcely,  in  the  present  agCj  been  able 
to  produce  a  martial  figure  in  becoming 
toggery  that  has  not  looked  awkward  and 
unsightly  to  the  European  eye.  On  the 
principle  that  what  is  worth  doing  at  all  is 
worth  doing  well,  the  American  soldier,  when 
in  juxtaposition  with  his  European  confrere, 
is  a  signal  failure  as  to  his  uniform.  Why 
this  is  true  is  easily  explained.  Every  change 
of  administration  brings  a  new  Secretary  of 
War,  and  generally  a  civilian.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  navy.  Then  the  contractors  hive 
at  the  capital.  Boards  of  officers  of  the 
sere-and-yellow-leaf  grades  are  detailed  to 
report  progressive  wear  for  officers  and  men, 
and  the  changes  made  must  needs  be  a  fresh 
invasion  of  their  pay-accounts.  The  official 
tinkering  done,  the  dressier  officers  of  both 
branches  of  the  service  accept  the  unhappy 


162         The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button. 

situation.  With  many  subdued  growls  we 
try  to  tide  over  the  financial  inroads  by  in- 
genious patch-work  of  weather-beaten  uni- 
forms. There  is  thus  no  symmetry  as  to 
any  single  costume,  either  in  cut,  color,  or 
decoration,  nor  does  the  command  present 
a  homogeneous  aspect.  Singular  is  all  this, 
when  it  is  conceded  that  Americans  are  the 
most  practical  and  inventive  people  of  the 
earth,  and  notably  in  nearly  all  that  pertains 
to  naval  and  military  creation,  to  our  splen- 
did field  hospital  service,  adopted  by  nearly 
all  the  armies  of  the  world ;  our  life-destroy- 
ing mitrailleuses,  our  Remingtons,  Hotchkiss 
and  other  rifles,  and  breech-loading  cannon, 
our  torpedoes,  and  floating  rams,  and  river 
gunboats.  One  would  think  that,  the  smaller 
the  military  and  naval  establishments  of  an 
opulent  power,  the  greater  the  care  in  this 
matter  of  presenting  an  admirably  dressed 
army  of  soldiers  and  sailors.  But  it  has  not 
been,  and  seemingly  will  not  be,  until  the 
authorities  come  down  to  a  correct  apprecia- 
tion of  the  necessities  of  good  taste  and  ar- 
tistic design.  Even  as  it  stands,  the  militia 
regiments  are  far  better  uniformed  than  the 


The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button.        163 

regulars,  as  the  observer  can  notice  at  any 
public  occasion,  when  they  appear  together 
in  New  York.  Perhaps  it  may  be  argued 
that  this  disinclination  to  follow  a  careful 
standard  in  military  dress  is  to  be  encour- 
aged, because  so  many  distinguished  Amer- 
ican generals  have  set  the  example.  This 
cannot  be  regarded  as  otherwise  than  per- 
nicious reasoning.  It  may  be  an  extremely 
poetic  situation  to  hand  down  to  history,  the 
scene  at  Appomattox,  when  Grant,  swordless, 
with  a  rusty  cavalry  hatband  a  fatigue  blouse, 
advanced  to  receive  the  surrender  of  Lee,  who 
was  carefully  attired  in  an  elegant  uniform; 
but  even  the  victorious  commander  himself 
has  confessed  that  his  appearance  in  crude 
garb  was  accidental,  wanting  in  circumspec- 
tion, and  very  unsoldierlike.  The  dignity 
of  the  occasion,  certainly  in  its  results  one  of 
the  momentous  of  modern  times,  is  stripped 
of  its  military  significance  by  an  absence  of 
ceremonial  which  is  taught  to  every  grad- 
uate of  West  Point  and  the  Naval  Academy 
as  one  of  the  very  chief  essentials  of  the  pro- 
fession of  arms. 

"If    nature   has   not   given   you    self-con- 


164         The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button. 

fidence  and  a  decisive  bearing,"  says  the 
text-book  of  these  institutions,  "you  must 
affect  them ;  you  must  pretend  to  a  com- 
manding exterior,  and  give  the  semblance 
of  superiority  by  all  outward  arts."  Recall 
some  of  the  recent  noteworthy  episodes  in 
European  wars,  and  it  will  be  seen  that,  by 
the  etiquette  on  such  occasions  as  that  of 
which  Grant  was  the  central  figure,  the 
scene  was  made  memorable  by  a  splendor  of 
military  trappings  suitable  to  a  great  and 
decisive  event.  There  was  Napoleon  III  at 
Sedan,  handing  his  sword  to  the  King  of 
Prussia,  to  mark  the  extinction  of  his  empire, 
yet  still  the  onward  march  to  democracy ; 
while  its  reception  by  the  Hohenzollern  po- 
tentate was  to  note  the  beginning  of  an  era 
when  a  liberal  monarchy  was  to  assume  the 
shackles  of  a  far-reaching  military  State, 
with  its  Emperor  crowned  in  the  palace  of 
Louis  XIV  at  Versailles. 

The  question  then  is,  what  remedy  must 
be  devised  to  better  uniform  our  officers  and 
men  ?  This  certainly  lies  with  the  depart- 
ments at  Washington;  with  an  intelligent 
and  liberal  action  of  Congress ;  but,  more  than 


The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button.         165 

all,  with  a  united  sentiment  in  the  army  and 
navy  themselves.  In  the  higher  grades  the 
example  should  be  set  to  junior  officers, 
and  no  slovenliness  in  make-up  or  quality 


Time  was  when  the  inusic  of  the  drum, and  now  will  he  lie  ten 

nights  awake,  carving  the  fashion  of  a  new  doublet— 

Much  Ado  About  Nothing. 

should  be  permitted.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  in  a  squadron,  where  the  admiral 
goes  about  utterly  regardless  of  neat  and 


166          The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button. 

regulation  dress,  that  he  cannot  enforce  a 
style  which  can  command  the  respect  of  for- 
eign officers.  This  general  laxity  and  neglect 
has  grown  up  to  a  large  extent  since  the  civil 
war,  for  in  the  olden  days  our  senior  officers 
were  as  superbly  attired  as  any  in  the  world. 
Retrogression  should,  therefore,  cease,  and 
practical  steps  be  taken  to  make  our  naval 
officers  appear  as  they  did  in  the  days  of 
Goldsborough,  Dupont,  and  Buchanan.  More- 
over, many  years  have  not  passed  since  army 
and  navy  officers  were  proud  to  appear 
among,  civilians  dressed  in  their  appropriate 
uniforms,  precisely  as  they  do  in  Europe; 
but  now  all  of  this  is  changed,  and  it  is  rare 
to  see  either  branch  of  the  service  in  its 
proper  insignia  among  those  in  citizen  life. 
When  it  is  so,  an  American  admiral  looks 
like  a  sergeant  of  the  metropolitan  police, 
and  an  army  colonel  like  a  military  instructor 
at  a  boarding-school.  In  the  former  days, 
when  the  wooing  was  done  in  blue  coats  and 
brass  buttons,  and  all  of  the  other  suitable 
and  becoming  paraphernalia,  the  conquest 
was  rapid,  and  many  a  portionless  mid- 
shipman or  second  lieutenant  of  the  engi- 


The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button.         167 

neers  chose  his  partner  for  life  from  among 
the  belle-heiresses  of  the  land — to  the  dis- 
comfiture of  those  whose  accomplishments 
lay  in  Wall  street  lore  or  among  the  bales  of 
dry-goods.  Now,  this  has  nearly  all  passed 
away,  as  a  prominent  feature  of  our  social  life 
in  America.  What  ambitious  American  girl 
now  wants  to  wed  a  poor  lieutenant  in  an 
alleged  navy,  or  go  forth  to  live  in  shabby 
barracks  on  the  plains,  with  nothing  to  sug- 
gest romance  in  the  life  of  her  liege  save 
paltry  Indian  wars,  or  the  idle  gossip  of  a 
frontier  camp  ?  No !  The  man  of  affairs 
has  come  to  the  front.  His  very  style,  even 
in  the  fashionable  wear  of  the  period,  far 
outshines  that  of  the  gilt- braided  and  brass- 
bespangled  defender  of  Uncle  Sam.  When 
it  is  considered,  too,  that  no  officer  can  enter 
either  branch  of  the  line  without  undergoing 
a  stringent  physical  examination,  it  will  be 
perceived  that  he  has  the  average  civilian  at 
a  very  considerable  disadvantage.  Knock- 
knees,  bow-legs,  bantam  bodies,  and  deformed 
neck  and  shoulders,  are  not  admitted  into  the 
regular  military  and  naval  service  of  the 
United  States.  Hence,  it  requires  none  of 


168          The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button. 

the  refinements  of  the  tailor's  art  to  build  out, 
by  ingenious  artifices,  striking  and  majestic 
shapes.  The  decadence,  therefore,  of  the 
American  officer  as  a  social  potentate,  and 
his  decline  as  a  fascinating  being  in  the  eyes 
of  womankind,  is  partially  his  own  fault. 
Leaving  home  we  find  pride  of  the  mili- 
tary person  a  matter  of  supreme  interest 
abroad.  Let  the  traveler  recall  the  splendid 
elan,  the  active  and  finely  drawn  phys- 
ique which  marks  the  Imperial  Guard  of 
the  Prussian  army,  where  nearly  every  officer 
is  a  prince,  and  our  own  poverty  of  costume 
will  become  apparent.  Is  it  to  be  marveled 
at  that  foreign  critics  of  our  habits,  who  for 
the  first  time  behold  an  American  military 
spectacle,  make  all  manner  of  fun  of  the  mil- 
itary tailoring  displayed  ?  Hence,  further- 
more, it  is  that  we  cut  such  a  ridiculous 
figure  in  the  painting,  statuary,  and  great 
memorials,  executed  to  commemorate  the 
deeds  of  our  great  soldiers  and  sailors.  It 
took  Launt  Thompson,  one  of  the  foremost 
artists  of  the  world,  over  a  year  to  pose  and 
properly  dress  the  figure  of  Admiral  .Dupont, 
which  now  stands  in  Washington  as  a  bronze 


The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button.        169 

monument.  No  naval  uniform  of  this  day 
could  be  adapted  to  this  quite  recently 
deceased  admiral,  and  great  pains  were  neces- 
sary to  prevent  the  bronze  monument  from 
becoming  an  unsightly  heap  of  metal. 

Nearly  all  of  the  battle  pictures  of  the  war 
as  now  painted  offend  the  artistic  eye,  how- 
ever they  may  be  true  to  nature.  Contrast 
the  spirited  and  splendid  color  delineations 
of  De  Neuville  and  Detaille — in  their  can- 
vasses exhibiting  the  carnage  about  Paris; 
or,  in  other  works,  the  legions  of  Napoleon  I 
returning  from  Moscow,  or  the  triumphant 
entry  of  the  French  Imperial  staff  into  Milan 
after  the  battle  of  Magenta — with  those  pict- 
ures of  our  own  civil  struggle— Fredericks- 
burg,  Manassas,  and  Vicksburg — and  one  can 
perceive  how  far  behind  we  are  in  what 
every  army  should  have — dramatic  military 
effect.  Therefore,  whatever  can  be  said  of 
the  fighting  qualities  of  some  of  the  noted 
militia  regiments  of  New  York  and  other 
cities  of  the  Union,  pro  or  con,  they,  at  least, 
deserve — those  we  have  in  mind — high  praise 
for  their  efforts  to  reform  the  uniforms  of 
our  soldiery.  As  to  the  regular  service,  a 


170          The  Reign  of  the  Brass  Button. 

speedy  and  complete  change  could  be  made 
by  the  single  signature  of  the  Cabinet  officer 
at  the  head  of  the  service,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  he  will  not  long  delay.  Nor  would 
an  autocratic  mandate  like  this  have  other 
than  a  happy  influence  on  civilian  wear. 
Those  who  do  not  look  beyond  their  noses 
cannot  trace  the  influence  of  miltary  wear  on 
civil  clothes ;  yet  it  exists,  and  always  has  been 
felt,  and  will  continue  to  have  a  legitimate 
effect.  The  costume,  however,  and  for  what- 
ever worn,  has  an  undoubted  dominion,  ex- 
tending beyond  its  immediate  use,  and  from 
this  fact  and  cognate  causes  we  may  look  for 
the  ultimate  daily  suit  of  clothes  that  will 
govern  the  new  period  in  dress  of  the  age  to 
be. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE  MAN-MAKER. 

BULWER,  who,  in  describing  Pelham,  was 
drawing  his  own  portrait,  has  left  some  in- 
imitable reflections,  showing  what  a  poetical 
and  ambitious  temperament  will  do  for  a 
natural-born  coxcomb  as  this  strange  littera- 
teur was.  But,  as  he  said  of  himself,  "  Under 
the  affectations  of  foppery,  and  the  levity  of  a 
manner  almost  unique  for  the  effeminacy  of 
its  tone,  I  veiled  an  ambition  the  most  ex- 
tensive in  its  object,  and  a  resolution  the 
most  daring  in  the  accomplishment  of  its 
means."  Yet  vanity  of  dress  was  never  ab- 
sent from  his  mental  make-up ;  and,  with  pen 
or  voice,  he  was  always  fluent  when  descant- 
ing on  the  garb  of  a  gentleman.  He  thought 
that  the  supreme  excellence  of  coats  was  not 
to  be  too  well  made ;  that  they  should  have 
nothing  of  the  triangle  about  them  ;  that 
wrinkles  behind  should  be  carefully  avoided ; 
that  the  coat  should  fit  exactly,  but  with- 
out effort.  This,  he  held,  could  never  be 


172  The  Man-Maker. 

the  case  where  any  padding,  beyond  a  thick 
sheet  of  buckram  placed  under  the  shoulder, 
and  sloping  gradually  away  toward  the 
chest,  could  be  admitted.  The  collar,  too, 
was  an  important  point  worthy  of  the  closest 
attention.  He  thought  it  should  be  low 
behind,  broad,  short,  and  slightly  rolled. 
About  the  tail  of  the  coat,  it  was  not  to  be 
broad  or  square  on  any  account,  save  when 
the  figure  was  much  too  thin.  "And,"  said 
he,  "  no  license  of  fashion  can  allow  a  man 
of  delicate  taste  to  imitate  the  posterior  luxu- 
riance* of  a  Hottentot ;  on  the  contrary,  I 
would  lean  to  the  other  extreme,  and  think 
myself  safe  in  a  swallow-tail."  As  to  the 
sleeve,  it  was  Bulwer's  axiom  that  anything 
too  tight  about  the  wrist  should  be  avoided  in 
men's  wear,  as  this  tendency  would  give  a  large 
and  clumsy  appearance  to  the  hand.  As  the 
waistcoat  is  apparently  the  least  observed 
article  in  dress,  the  fact  is  lost  sight  of  that 
it  influences  the  whole  appearance  more  than 
any  one  not  profoundly  versed  in  the  habil- 
imentary  art  would  suppose.  Besides,  it  is 
the  only  main  portion  of  the  attire  in  which 
we,  as  men,  have  a  fine  opportunity  for  a  re- 


The  Man-Maker.  173 

fined  and  highly  cultivated  taste ;  for,  what- 
ever the  fashions  as  to  trousers  and  coats, 
the  wearer  has  a  wide  range  in  waistcoats 
from  which  to  choose  arid  balance  any  pecu- 
liarities of  figure  or  local  coloring.  In  this 
respect  he  has  almost  a  woman's  license. 
Take  the  richly  colored  and  dotted  cashmeres 
of  to-day,  and  they  present  quite  as  exquisite 
and  rich  effects  on  the  chest  of  man  as  can 
be  found  on  the  bust  of  fashionable  women. 
Let  the  artistic  fact,  therefore,  enter  into  the 
mind  of  every  gentleman  and  every  tailor, 
that  it  is  by  variations  (often  radical)  in  cut, 
color,  and  fabric  of  the  waistcoat,  that  the 
human  figure  can  be  made  to  have  many 
attractive  aspects.  Some  men  must  have  ex- 
panse of  shirt-front,  some  must  be  clad  in  cloth 
up  to  the  collar-button,  while  just  media 
are  suitable  for  others.  The  dressier  among 
the  famous  men  of  these  later  days  have 
generally  selected  a  rich  and  ornate  species 
of  vest ;  but  extreme  caution  has  always 
been  observed  that  nothing  tawdry  and  com- 
mon should  be  permitted.  Herein  a  gentle- 
man, without  being  vulgar  or  ostentatious, 
may  follow  his  own  taste,  and  make  it  as  ex- 


174  The  Man- Maker. 

elusive  as  possible,  while  in  all  other  gar- 
ments he  must  advise  with  and  follow  the 
reigning  styles.  Trousers  and  braces,  or  sus- 
penders, if  the  name  be  better  liked,  could  in 
themselves  make  a  chapter.  While  the  use 
of  suspenders  is  a  sanitary  problem,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  no  immutable  law  can  be  pro- 
mulgated thereon.  For  mere  outward  effect 
they  are,  no  doubt,  a  veiy  admirable  ex- 
pedient ;  otherwise,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion that  they  do,  to  some  degree,  check  the 
free  movement  of  the  body,  and  at  times  im- 
pose a  disagreeable  burden  on  the  shoulders. 
On  some  figures  they  are  indispensable,  par- 
ticularly when  the  physique  tapers  almost 
in  a  straight  line  from  the  shoulders  to 
the  feet ;  but  when  a  gentleman  is  built  with 
hips  that  belong  to  the  ideal  man,  then  he 
can  dispense  with  these  accessories  without 
impairing  the  general  effect  of  his  well-made 
trousers.  In  this  matter  of  trousers,  too, 
there  are  individual  conceits  which  often 
must  be  respected.  The  thin  man,  the  genm 
stalk,  is  particularly  sensitive,  lest  his  tubular 
clothes  should  be  too  slender ;  and,  oh  !  how 
does  the  jelly-legged  biped  implore  you  to 


The  Man-Maker.  175 

make  graceful  outlines !  And  then  there  is 
the  possessor  of  a  delicately  shapen  arid  aristo- 
cratic foot,  even  too  small  for  a  man  already ; 
what  will  he  not  suggest  to  further  enhance 
its  effeminacy?  Sometimes  he  would  have 
his  trousers  short,  so  as  to  develop  the  fine- 
ness of  his  has  de  sole,  or  give  them  a  spring 
at  the  bottom  to  show  only  the  tips  of  his 
shoes. 

In  selecting  his  man-maker,  the  true  gentle- 
man of  fashion,  and  even  he  who  does  not 
concentrate  any  particular  thinking  on  dress, 
should  be  careful  to  inquire  as  to  the  quality 
of  his  clothes.  Novices  can  rarely  tell  at  a 
first  glance  goods  of  fine  and  superior  manu- 
facture from  those  of  inferior  and  fraudulent 
grades.  This  is  chiefly  true  in  the  misrepre- 
sentations that  are  made  in  passing  off  native 
for  English  fabrics  !  And  here  conies  in  the 
patriotic  American,  and  says, "  Why  should  we 
not  make  as  good  cloth  as  the  British  ?"  The 
answer  is  simply  we  do  not,  and  the  reason 
is  obvious.  England  has  for  her  market  the 
entire  world — all  of  the  European  continent 
and  South  America,  and  the  West  and  East 
Indies,  not  to  speak  of  the  Canadas,  while 


176  The  Man-Maker. 

the  United  States  are  obliged  to  manufacture 
against  this  great  competition,  fortified  by 
cheap  labor,  for  the  home  consumption  alone. 
This  is  no  place  to  preach  tariff,  or  anti-tariff, 
sermons;  but  America  has  ample  protection, 
and  is  still  unable  to  make  satisfactory 
woolens  to  suit  the  highest  classes  of  mer- 
chant tailoring.  Notwithstanding  the  high 
tariff,  however,  both  importers,  like  the 
author,  and  our  manufacturers,  are  grievously 
swindled  annually  by  that  abundant  class 
who  have  clothes  made  in  England,  and 
actually  smuggled  into  the  country  by  a 
variety  of  familiar  devices.  There  are  even 
broken-down  gentlemen  who  have  credit  left 
in  England  with  their  tailors  for  hundreds  of 
suits  of  clothes,  and  who  receive  them  in  a 
clandestine  way  at  this  and  other  ports,  only 
to  dispose  of  them  at  one-third  their  value, 
or  place  them  in  a  pawn-shop  as  almost 
daily  customers.  This  is  a  curious  method 
of  keeping  the  wolf  from  the  door,  yet  there 
are  several  well-known  illustrations  of  it  in 
New  York.  It  is  entirely  possible  to  follow 
such  a  bent  for  years;  and  easily,  where 
tailors  have  been  under  contract  for  so  much 


The  Man-Maker.  177 

a  year.  But  this  system  does  not  prevail  in 
America,  and  much  less  now  in  England  than 
is  generally  supposed.  It  is  worthy  of  note, 
too,  that  Englishmen  are  beginning  to  send 
to  New  York  for  their  clothes,  which  cost 
them  three  English  prices, — only  that  they 
may  take  advantage  of  our  superb  cutters 
aud  fitters. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

AXIOMATIC   TRUTHS    FOE   THE   GENTLEMAN     AND 
THE   TAILOE. 

WHILE  the  author  has  sought  to  avoid 
anything  like  shoppiness  in  the  preparation 
of  this  treatise,  and  has  sought  to  avoid  any 
cheap  and  redundant  display  of  technical 
knowledge,  he  feels,  in  carrying  out  the  intent 
of  this  work,  as  announced  in  the  introduc- 
tion, that  he  should  lay  down  some  general 
rules  for  gentleman  and  tailor  which,  if  fol- 
lowed, will  result  in  very  materially  advanc- 
ing the  aim  he  has  in  view — artistic  wear, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  craft. 

FOR    THE    GENTLEMAN. 

I.  Never  select  a  tailor  because  his  prices  are 
low.  This  is  a  commandment  quite  as 
important  as  that  laid  down  by  Thomas 
Jefferson,  in  his  Ten  Rules  of  Life: 
"  Never  buy  a  thing  because  it  is  cheap." 
You  may  rely  upon  it,  that  the  more 


Axiomatic  Truths.  179 

you  pay  for  an  article  of  clothing,  at  a 
tailor's  whose  reputation  is  number  one, 
the  better  will  be  the  garment  in  all 
particulars — in  closeness  of  fitting,  ex- 
cellence of  workmanship,  and  superior 
cloth  and  trimmings.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  merchant  who  is  allowed  a  liberal 
margin  of  profit,  and  who  has  keen 
competition  in  his  own  field,  will  look 
after  that  which  he  produces  under  such 
circumstances,  with  a  greater  pride  and  a 
keener  scrutiny,  than  he  would  if  doing 
a  hap-hazard  business. 

II.  Having  selected  your  tailor,  go  to  him  for 
advice,  and  carefully  weigh  it  in  the 
choosing  of  goods  and  styles ;  but  you 
are  not  required  to  surrender  any  pecu- 
liar ideas  of  your  own,  without  their 
fallacy  and  impracticability  are  thor- 
oughly demonstrated.  By  all  means,  be 
not  in  too  much  haste  to  have  your 
clothes  hurried  through  without  the 
necessary  fitting.  This  is  one  of  the  be- 
setting sins  of  the  American.  And  re- 
member, likewise,  that  whatever  your  de- 


180  Axiomatic  Truths. 

fective  physique — do  you  fancy  yourself 
too  short  or  too  tall,  too  thin  or  too  ro- 
tund— with  a  suitable  measure,  once 
obtained,  you  can  always  present  a 
favorable  exterior. 

III.  You  should  have  a  complete  wardrobe 
at  all  times.  If  this  be  prepared  with 
care,  and  covering  every  occasion  where 
you  are  liable  to  be  present,  and  adapted 
to  special  lines  of  life,  embracing  games, 
hunting,  riding,  driving,  and  yachting, 
the  cost  will  be  very  moderate  to  re- 
plenish it  from  time  to  time,  as  circum- 
stances may  require ;  and  often,  with 
ample  precautions,  it  will  last  for  years. 
It  is  an  illustration  of  this  principle  to 
note  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  entitled 
to  wear  seventy  different  uniforms.  The 
estimate  is  rather  under  than  overstated, 
for  he  has  a  right  to  don  seventeen  mil- 
itary and  volunteer  uniforms  alone,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  special  costumes  as- 
sociated with  his  position  as  Great  Stew- 
ard of  Scotland,  Governor  of  the  Charter 
House,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  President  of 


Axiomatic  Truths. 


181 


the  Society  of  Arts,  knight  of  some  score 
of  orders,  etc. 


IV.  Some  flash  and  bizarre  fashions  should 
be  scrupulously  avoided.  There  is 
nothing  so  gratifying  to  the  true  gentle- 
man as  to  be  told  that  he  is  always  well 
dressed,  without  the  observer's  ability  to 


182  Axiomatic  Truths. 

determine  why.  This  result  can  easily 
be  achieved  by  varying  the  garments, 
both  as  to  pattern,  figure,  and  colors,  ac- 
cording to  morning,  evening,  or  dress 
occasions ;  and  a  not  very  extensive  as- 
sortment is  necessary  for  this  purpose. 

V.  If  you  are  a  salaried  man,  and  therefore 
one  of  method  in  your  expenditures,  set 
a  fixed  sum  apart  for  dress,  and  even  if 
this  be  seemingly  large,  you  will  find  that 
a  neat  and  otherwise  attractive  appear- 
ance will  not  militate  against  your  ad- 
vancement. 


VI.  Be  scrupulous  in  observing  the  fixed 
laws  of  society,  on  public  and  dress  occa- 
sions, in  reference  to  your  attire.  Should 
you  always  be  en  regie,  you  will  find 
yourself  a  welcome  guest  in  many  house- 
holds and  circles  otherwise  unattainable, 
and  often  in  demand,  from  the  sole  fact, 
that  you  respect  conventional  forms 
and  will  never  appear  in  an  outre  or  ill- 
timed  costume. 


Axiomatic  Truths.  183 


FOR   TAILORS. 


Tailors  are  often  culpable  sinners  against 
their  customers,  and  quite  as  often  inno- 
cently so.  But  if,  as  a  rule,  they  will  follow 
these  inflexible  axioms,  they  will  find  them- 
selves very  soon  on  the  high  road  to  fortune, 
if  the  author  can  take  his  own  modest  suc- 
cesses as  a  criterion. 

I.  Promptitude  should  be  the  unfailing  motto 
of  every  tailor,  hoisted  high  above  all 
others,  to  guide  him  in  his  journey 
through  life.  The  author  does  not  recall 
that  he  has  ever,  in  a  single  instance,  dis- 
appointed a  customer,  unless  some  unfore- 
seen accident  has  occurred,  and  then  the 
patron  has  been  notified  before  the  ap- 
pointed time.  More  substantial  business 
is  gained  by  the  strict  observance  of  this 
duty,  than  by  any  intrinsic  quality  in 
the  workmanship  itself.  That  tailors 
have  become  a  popular  jibe  for  tardiness, 
unnecessary  procrastination,  and  often 
downright  lying,  is  due  to  carelessness  in 
this  particular.  It  may  be  set  down  as 
a  just  observation,  that  no  proprietor 


184  Axiomatic  Truths. 

has  a  right  to  undertake  to  fill  a  definite 
order  for  a  fixed  date,  if  he  has  any  in- 
ward suspicion  that  he  cannot  execute  it 
on  time. 

II.  At   whatever  pecuniary   loss,    no   tailor 

should  permit  a  suit  of  clothes  to  issue 
from  his  house  if  he  has  any  doubts  as 
to  its  fitting  or  other  qualities.  To  flat- 
ter a  patron  into  believing  that  he  has 
a  splendid  garment,  by  drowning  his  ex- 
postulations with  specious  and  technical 
phraseology,  or  assuring  him  that  it  will 
wear  into  the  desired  shape  and  ease,  is 
a  kind  of  swindle  which  will  travel  fast, 
to  the  tailor's  injury.  If  an  irremediable 
misfit  be  made,  better  pocket  the  loss  in 
a  good  spirit,  and  with  a  lofty  contempt 
for  a  few  paltry  dollars,  than  send  a  man 
out  of  your  shop  to  be  told  by  his 
friends  and  rival  cutters  that  you  are  a 
slop-tailor. 

III.  Tailors   should   seek,  by   cultivating   a 
friendly  rivalry  among  each  other,  to  as- 
sist, as  a  body,  in  praising  good  work 


Axiomatic  Truths.  185 

when  it  is  seen,  and  avoiding  unneces- 
sary asperity  in  criticising  those  of  high 
standing  in  the  guild.  A  really  superior- 
minded  tailor  is  above  any  such  prac- 
tices as  this,  feeling  that  his  work,  like 
that  of  the  successful  painter,  speaks  for 
itself,  where  animadversions  on  the  styles 
or  goods  of  others  only  have  the  effect  to 
confuse  and  bewilder  the  dressers,  with- 
out any  tangible  advantage  to  any  one. 

IV.  Above  all,  the  present  race  of  merchant 
tailors   should   seek    to    throw   around 
dressing  every  artistic  adjunct  it  is  pos- 
sible to  secure.     The  servile  copying  of 
the  fashion  plates  and  reproduction  of 
a  suit  of  clothes  worn  by  some  European 
notable  are  not  the  beginning  and  the 
end  ox  his  science  by  any  means.    Rather 
should  he  have  an  original  turn  to  his 
lines,  if  they  do  not  offend  the  eye  or  the 
rules  of  art,  and  place  individual  excel- 
lence in  his  designing  as  his  ultimatum. 

V.  The   customer  should   be  constantly  im- 

pressed with  this  one  truth  —  the  better 


186  Axiomatic  Truths, 

his  dress,  the  greater  his  popularity,  the 
sounder  his  health,  the  more  certain  his 
prosperity  and  his  daily  reward  of  a 
life  of  content  and  happiness. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

MISCELLANEOUS   WEAR 

Count  d'Orsay,  undeniably  the  best  dressed 
man  of  his  time,  held  it  for  a  maxim  that  in 
dress  there  was  nothing  insignificant.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  true  than  this,  and  d'Orsay 
was  himself  a  striking  illustration  of  his 
saying.  Those  who  saw  him  in  the  street  or 
in  the  ball-room,  at  a  reception  or  a  review, 
carried  away  with  them  the  impression  of 
a  radiant  vision,  a  harmonious  and  admira- 
ble face  and  form,  the  detailed  features  of 
-"which  they  were  wholly  unable  to  describe, 
conscious  only  that  everything  was  in  its 
place  and  in  keeping.  This  harmony  was  the 
result  of  a  perfect  art  applied  to  a  singularly 
fortunate  nature;  an  art,  that  is,  which 
neglected  nothing  in  the  details  of  the  cos- 
tume. If  it  had  been  otherwise,  if  d'Orsay 
could  have  worn  an  ill-fitting  boot,  or  a  hat 
that  did  not  suit  his  dress,  what  a  shock 
would  have  been  given  to  the  sensibilities  of 
every  observer  !  It  is  easy  to  apply  the  les- 


188  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

son   taught  by  the   example   of  this  great 
leader  of  fashion. 

Every  man  who  can  dress,  owes  it  to 
society,  to  himself,  to  his  tailor,  to  dress  with 
care  and  attention  to  the  smallest  matters. 
There  can  be  no  greater  or  more  fatal  error 
than  to  imagine  one's  self  fairly  arrayed  when 
coat,  waistcoat,  and  trousers  have  been  pro- 
vided. As  well  imagine  that  a  tree  is  per- 
fect when  it  has  trunk  and  branches  and 
twigs,  without  either  leaf  or  blossom  or  fruit. 
The  neck-wear  must  be  appropriate  and 
refined,  or  the  coat,  though  it  be  a  master- 
piece, will  seem  to  have  been  unlawfully  come 
by;  the  shirt-front  must  appear,  not  like  a 
white  sea,  but  so  as  to  relieve  the  general 
effect  of  the  upper  costume ;  the  cuff's  must 
be  of  the  right  length,  neither  too  long  nor 
too  short,  either  excess  being  destructive  of 
the  true  function  of  the  cuff,  which  is,  to  add 
a  finish  to  the  arm  and  tone  down  the  abrupt- 
ness of  the  transition  from  the  sleeve  of  the 
coat  to  the  hand,  whether  gloved  or  ungloved ; 
and  the  boots  must  be  without  fault,  easy, 
elegant  in  shape,  and,  as  it  were,  the  unavoid- 
able and  necessary  outcome  of  the  trousers. 


Miscellaneous  Wear.  189 

There  can  be  nothing  accidental  in  a  rightly 
dressed  man.  Each  portion,  each  article  of 
his  outline,  must  be  the  continued  expression 
of  his  individuality.  This  is  no  secret  to  the 
true  tailor,  but  not  every  one  has  had  the  good 
fortune  to  put  himself  in  the  hands  of  an 
artist.  So  essential  is  attention  to  the  smaller 
minutiae  of  dress,  that  every  intending  patron 
of  the  art  of  costume  should  lay  it  down  as 
a  rule,  for  himself,  never  to  think  that  he  is 
dressed  until  h'is  tailor  has  inspected  and 
approved  what  has  been  done.  There  is  even 
more  in  true  attire  than  is  yet  suspected. 
All  really  permanent  creations  repose  upon  a 
solid  basis  of  performance ;  a  house  must  be 
founded  upon  the  rock,  and  not  upon  the 
sand ;  a  great  painting,  or  a  noble  statue,  im- 
plies long  and  patient  study  of  principles 
and  infinite  labor  in  drawing,  and  so  we  hold 
it  to  be  beyond  the  wit  of  man  to  dress  well 
without  a  patient  study  and  thoughtful  ar- 
rangement of  the  underwear.  The  external 
fitness  and  elegance  suppose  an  internal  ar- 
rangement of  corresponding  qualities,  and 
not  to  meet  the  expectation  of  this  sincerity 
in  apparel  is  to  be  guilty  of  a  deep  hypoc- 


190  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

risy.  Every  reader  of  Ruskin  remembers 
with  what  burning  eloquence  this  great  genius 
has  denounced  the  shams  of  architecture,  the 
painted  wood  and  iron  in  place  of  stone,  the 
molded  stucco  work  where  should  have  been 
carved  marble.  If  imitations  like  these  are 
detestable  and  immoral,  what  is  to  be  said  of 
the  fraudulent  semblances  made  to  do  duty 
in  dress,  which  should  be  absolutely  beyond 
suspicion,  seeing  that  it  is  the  outward  and 
familiar  shape  by  which  a  man  is  known  alike 
to  friends  and  enemies?  Who  could  endure 
the  thought  of  descending  to  put  on  what 
the  dictionaries  call  a  dickey  f  The  mind 
shrinks  back  at  the  image  brought  before  it, 
and  we  hear  with  incredulity  that  good  men 
and  true  have  masqueraded  under  this  im- 
perfect disguise.  Good  men  they  may  have 
been,  in  the  sense  of  innocent,  because  ig- 
norant and  unthinking,  men ;  but  true  men 
they  were  not,  for  they  went  about  among 
their  fellows  with  imposture  in  their  thought, 
and  a  shabby  make-believe  covering  their 
breasts.  It  is  not  thus  that  a  really  artistic 
dress  is  to  be  made  up  or  worn.  In  this, 
sincerity  and  reality  are  the  first  requisites. 


Miscellaneous  Wear.  191 

Beauty,  in  Plato's  definition,  is  the  fitness  of 
things  to  their  purpose  ;  and  he  who  would 
be  well  dressed  must  never  forget  this  defini- 
tion. The  underwear  must  be  of  the  best, 
and  carefully  fitted  to  the  person ;  and,  with 
this  foundation  well  laid,  the  outer  costume, 
designed  by  a  true  artist  in  his  line,  must 
give  to  every  beholder  the  satisfaction  of  a 
perfect  and  rhythmical  grace,  and  to  the 
wearer  the  serenity  of  a  mind  and  a  con- 
science in  harmony  with  the  great  law  of 
right.*  This  may  seem  to  be  the  language  of 
exaggeration;  but  it  is  far  from  that.  No 
man  at  ease  with  himself  can  be  at  war  with 
the  universe.  Conduct,  it  has  been  said 
by  a  thoughtful  writer,  is  three-fourths  of 
human  life ;  and  right  conduct  in  every  hu- 
man relation  is  at  least  three  times  as  easy  to 
the  truly  dressed  man  as  it  is  to  the  un- 
worthily attired.  These  things  prove  them- 
selves. 


*  A  long-continued  personal  experience  enables  the  author 
to  say,  that  Messrs.  Webster  Brothers,  of  26  Lombard  Street, 
London,  have  recognized  this  principle  for  years  in  cutting 
the  drawers  and  shirts  supplied  by  their  house ;  and  their 
attention  to  this  point,  so  generally  neglected,  has  recom- 
mended their  products  not  less  than  the  special  quality  of  the 
gray  wool  employed. 


192  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

It  cannot  be  too  carefully  borne  in  mind 

v 

that  the  style  of  miscellaneous  wear  is  a  mat- 
ter for  serious  study,  with  the  counsel  and 
critical  aid  of  the  tailor.  How  far  the  per- 
sonal peculiarities  of  the  wearer  ought  to 
modify  his  acceptance  of  the  prevailing  fash- 
ions is  a  question  to  which  he  himself  can 
hardly  give  a  final  answer  ;  at  least  not  until 
that  far-off  day  arrives  for  which  Burns  ut- 
tered his  still  ungranted  petition,  that  we 
might 

See  oursels  as  ithers  see  us. 

The  tailor  sees  as  the  world  sees,  with  an 
added  special  intelligence  entirely  his  own, 
and  his  judgment  should  be  the  decisive  one, 
his  approval  the  mint  stamp  on  the  coin. 

Exaggerated  style  is  the  thing  to  be 
avoided.  It  is  right  to  be  simple  in  taste, 
but  simplicity  must  not  be  carried  too  far, 
lest  it  become  conspicuous  boldness;  neither 
should  a  prevailing  fashion  draw  the  eyes  of 
the  passers-by  to  the  fashion  of  the  dress 
rather  than  to  the  wearer  of  it.  The  ex- 
treme in  either  direction  is  an  error,  though 
great  examples  may  be  brought  forward  to 
justify  each  of  these.  How,  for  instance, 


Miscellaneous  Wear.  193 

does  the  action  of  Brummel,  when  he  made 
the  crowd  stare  at  his  wonderful  starched  cra- 
vat, commend  itself  to  the  sound  critic  of 
costume?  Only  one  answer  is  possible:  it 
was  a  grave  offense  against  the  laws  of  good 
taste.  This  was  one  extreme.  For  an  ex- 
ample of  the  other,  take  this  passage,  from  a 
somewhat  famous  description  of  a  distin- 
guished Southern  general,  when  about  to  ad- 
dress a  great  political  meeting  a  few  years 
ago:  "His  costume  was  characteristically 
simple ;  plain  black,  from  head  to  foot,  his 
waistcoat  low  cut,  revealing  the  broad  shirt- 
bosom.  He  was  retiring  in  his  neck-tie^  The 
language  is  peculiar,  but  plain  enough  to 
show  that  the  great  soldier  overstepped  the 
modesty  of  true  art  in  the  studied  simplicity, 
or,  shall  we  say,  the  obtrusive  withdrawal  of 
his  neckwear  from  public  view?  It  had 
been  less  offensive  to  good  dressing  to  appear 
without  a  neck-tie  than  with  one  which  pain- 
fully attracted  the  eyes  of  all  to  its  affecta- 
tion. In  all  these  matters  the  perfect  model 
is  Count  d'Orsay,  and  every  one  who  is  hap- 
pily endowed  by  nature  may,  with  pains  and 
study,  approach  to  his  excellence. 


194  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

The  constant  study  and  effort  to  improve 
are  indispensable.  One  can  never  know  too 
much  of  the  science  and  art  of  form,  and  also 
of  color.  The  real  artist-tailor  must  have 
a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  color,  to  direct 
and  chasten  his  practical  acquaintance  with 
the  effects  produced  by  juxtaposition  and  by 
contrast.  He  can  guide  in  the  right  way 
those  who  would  otherwise  wander  in  con- 
fusion of  mind,  but  his  task  is  lightened 
when  his  customer  has  also  paid  attention  to 
this  subject. 

Chevreul  on  Color  should  be  the  hand-book 
of  every  man  of  fashion.  It  is  not,  perhaps, 
out  of  place,  to  suggest,  while  on  the  subject 
of  color,  that  the  greater  clearness  and  bright- 
ness of  the  American  sky  must  be  allowed 
for  in  studying  contrasts  and  harmonies  of 
shade  and  tones  originated  under  the  duller 
heaven  of  England. 

If  it  is  necessary  to  pay  great  attention  to 
the  finish  and  proportion  of  the  collars,  and 
other  visible  portions  of  the  underwear,  it  is 
quite  as  imperative  to  give  long  and  anxious 
thought  to  the  gloves,  the  shoes,  and  the  jew- 
elry, which  cannot  be  an  after-thought.  The 


Miscellaneous  Wear.  195 

simple  rule  for  the  gloves  and  the  shoes  is 
the  French  one,  to  be  bien  chausse  et  bien 
gante.  Nothing  can  be  added  to  this,  for  it 
covers  the  whole  field.  One  needs  only  to 
remember  that  the  hands  are  made  to  lay  hold 
of  and  to  relinquish  objects,  and  the  feet  to 
walk  with  and  to  support  worthily  the  state- 
ly form  of  manhood.  The  gloves,  therefore, 
should  cover,  not  cramp  the  fingers.  If  prop- 
erly fitted,  they  give  an  air  of  their  own  to 
the  hands,  and  leave  them,  at  the  same  time, 
free  for  all  the  courtesies  of  life. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  boots  or  the  shoes. 
The  shoes  that  pinch  belittle  and  degrade 
the  wearer  more  than  any  other  solecism  in 
dress.  It  is  in  vain  that  a  man  with  shoes 
too  small  for  him  endeavors  to  appear  well 
dressed.  His  clothes  may  be  masterpieces, 
but  the  attention  will  be  perversely  drawn  to 
his  hobbling  gait  and  the  attempted  disguise 
that  disguises  nothing.  The  shoe  must  fit 
the  well-dressed  man,  and  it  is  the  perfection 
of  its  fit  that  will  make  it  seem  to  be  even 
smaller  than  its  actual  measure.  Every  at- 
tempt at  deceiving  the  eyes  of  others  in  this 
part  of  the  dress  is  hopeless,  and  the  unlucky 


196  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

wearer  of  too  small  shoes  has  not  even  the 
satisfaction  of  a  self-delusion  like  that  of  the 
ostrich  with  his  head  in  a  bush ;  for  he  .sees 
that  every  one  sees  his  flimsy  imposture. 

Should  a  well-dressed  man  wear  jewelry  ? 
This  question  suggests,  like  many  other  ques- 
tions, the  need  of  a  new  word  to  meet  the 
necessities  of  a  new  development  in  social 
customs.  For  want  of  a  better,  we  are  obliged 
to  call  by  the  vague  and  inappropriate  name 
of  jewelry  the  watch-chain,  the  ring,  and  one 
or  two  minor  articles  of  gold  and  precious 
stones  which  a  gentleman  now  permits  him- 
self to  wear.  As  a  received  part  of  the  cos- 
tume, what  is  properly  known  as  jewelry  is 
unheard  of.  The  days  are  gone  when  a  great 
noble  could  present  himself  in  society  in  a 
coat  blazing  with  diamonds,  so  loosely  sewn 
on  that  every  now  arid  then  some  of  them 
fell  to  the  floor,  to  be  the  prize  of  the  first 
comer.  Gone,  too,  not  to  return  in  our  day, 
the  time  when  Disraeli,  in  the  beginning  of 
his  career  as  novelist  and  man  of  fashion  and 
politician,  dazzled  the  eyes  of  London  with 
his  semi-barbaric  richness  of  ornament.  In 
that  time  even  the  sober  citizen  of  London, 


Miscellaneous  Wear.  197 

and  the  American,  with  his  confessedly  lim- 
ited and  provincial  ambitions,  held  it  to  be 
beneath  the  dignity  of  a  respectable  man  to 
appear  in  public  without  the  bunch  of  seals 
attached  to  his  massive  watch-guard.  Where 
are  uow  those  solid  cubes  of  gold,  set  with 
red  and  white  carnelians  and  dark  cairn- 
gorms, dangling  to  and  fro,  or  reposing  trust- 
fully against  the  person,  according  to  the 
wearer's  greater  or  lesser  breadth  of  beam  ? 
Who  can  find  them?  Who  can  gather  up 
the  snows  of  the  past  winter  ? 

To-day  there  is  a  changed  spirit  abroad. 
A  chain,  the  less  noticeable  the  better,  a  ring, 
and  by  preference  a  seal-ring,  wrist-buttons, 
and  a  scarf-pin,  make  up  the  jewelry  in  the 
attire  of  a  well-dressed  man.  Of  all  these 
the  seal-ring  is  undeniably  the  one  with  the 
noblest  pedigree  and  the  least  questionable 
title.  The  watch  is  of  comparatively  recent 
origin,  and,  even  if  we  regard  it  as  indispen- 
sable to  the  personal  outfit,  may  well  be  worn 
without  the  golden  chain,  while  it  is  quite 
conceivable  that  a  severer  taste  may  repudi- 
ate the  scarf-pin  as  unnecessary,  or  even  as 
the  sign  of  a  harking-back  toward  barbarism ; 


198  Miscellaneous  Wear. 

but  the  seal-ring  is  identified  with  the  very 
principle  of  civilization.  It  is  the  symbol  of 
law,  of  the  respect  for  constituted  authority, 
of  the  sacredness  of  contracts,  of  the  respon- 
sibilities, in  one  word,  which  hold  society 
together.  In  no  one  article  that  is  worn  is 
there  concentrated  so  much  of  personal  char- 
acter and  dignity  as  in  the  seal-ring,  conse- 
crated, as  it  has  been  from  the  earliest  ages, 
to  the  most  serious  and  solemn  purposes  and 
to  the  gravest  occasions  in  the  life  of  its 
owner.  How  much  of  the  unwritten  history  of 
the  race  partly  reveals  itself  in  the  collections 
of  seals  in  our  museums !  A  well-cut  seal  is 
in  itself  an  evidence  of  its  wearer's  identity 
and  an  expression  of  the  refinement  and  so- 
lidity of  his  culture. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   PROPOSED    E  EVOLUTION   IN   DRESS. 

WHEN  Louis  the  Sixteenth  was  talking 
with  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt 
on  the  night  after  the  taking  of  the  Bastille, 
he  wound  up  his  remarks  with  the  words : 
"  It  is  an  insurrection."  "  No,  sire,"  replied 
the  duke,  "  It  is  a  revolution."  The  leaders 
of  fashion,  like  the  rulers  of  kingdoms,  often 
mistake  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  fail  to 
appreciate  the  gravity  of  a  situation  which 
is  the  result  of  causes  not  actually  within 
the  range  of  sight.  To  pronounce  the  word 
revolution  is  to  alarm  and  disconcert  the  vast 
multitude  whose  belief  in  the  permanence  of 
existing  conditions  is  absolute.  It  may  be  a 
consolation  to  some  to  remind  them  that  the 
revolution  is  always  with  us,  like  the  poor, 
like  the  succession  of  day  and  night.  In  the 
cycles  of  style  and  of  fashion,  as  in  those  of 
the  natural  world,  movement  is  the  supreme 
law,  and  movement  around  a  central  point. 
As  in  language,  so  in  dress.  Many  forms  that 


200  Revolution  in  Dress. 

have  gone  down  will  rise  again,  and  others, 
now  held  in  honor,  will  pass  away. 

Is  there  to  be  a  revolution  in  styles  of 
dress?  No  one  can  say  when  such  an  event 
is  near  at  hand,  still  less  can  any  one  hope  to 
bring  it  about  by  preaching  or  even  by  ex- 
ample, except  in  the  modification  of  existing 
forms,  and  this  is  not  revolution,  but  change. 
Too  ambitious  an  aim  in  such  matters  surely 
defeats  itself,  even  when  led  by  an  acknowl- 
edged authority  and  power,  like  that  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  When  undertaken  by  a 
lesser  man,  ridicule  gathers  about  the  move- 
ment and  overwhelms  the  leader  and  his  fol- 
lowers. This  is  seen  in  the  history  of  Oscar 
Wilde's  proposed  reform,  a  scheme  not  intrin- 
sically absurd,  and  not  without  good  features 
of  its  own,  but  mismanaged  from  the  begin- 
ning, because  its  apostle  was  deficient  in 
a  sense  of  humor,  and,  one  cannot  help  think- 
ing, more  or  less  insincere.  There  must  be 
singleness  of  purpose  in  the  advocate  of  re- 
form, and  the  purpose  must  be  a  worthy  one. 
Self-seeking  must  be  far  from  his  thought, 
and  even  the  suspicion  of  it  must  be  avoided. 

So  far  as  an  outlook  over  the  broad  field 


Revolution  in  Dress.  201 

can  reassure  us,  we  may  feel  that  no  very 
great  change  in  costume  is  to  be  expected  in 
the  near  future.  The  democratic  spirit  of 
the  age,  and  the  constantly  widening  com- 
mercial activities  of  every  people,  are  mighty 
influences  at  work  to  limit  and  define  the 
general  style  of  dress  in  the  world.  It  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  difficult  to  assign  a 
man  to  his  place  in  society  on  the  evidence 
of  his  costume,  and  this  state  of  things  will 
last  for  a  long  time  to  come.  There  will  al- 
ways be  the  distinction  between  the  well- 
dressed  man  and  the  man  who  is  careless  of 
his  attire ;  but  the  number  of  the  well-dressed 
will  go  on  increasing  with  the  spread  of 
sound  information  and  the  growth  of  right 
ideas,  and,  with  added  numbers,  the  better 
dressed  portion  of  the  people  will  constantly 
attract  to  themselves  more  recruits  from  the 
less  advanced  multitude.  It  will  only  be 
when  something  like  an  equilibrium  is 
reached,  when  the  world  is  about  fairly  di- 
vided between  the  two,  that  a  revolution  will 
have  everything  in  its  favor. 

The  growth  of  taste  in  art,  and  especially 
in  painting  and  sculpture,  is  working  silently 


202  Reoolution  in  Drew. 

and  surely  to  modify  the  views  of  men  with  re- 
gard to  costume.  So  long  as  the  business  world 
is  the  all-important  world,  the  conceptions  of 
the  end  and  aim  of  dress  must  be  shaped,  in 
part,  at  least,  by  the  needs  of  business.  The 
principle  of  Herbert  Spencer,  that  man  is  the 
result  of  his  conditions  and  his  environment,  is 
decisive  in  this  matter.  Even  if  we  would,  we 
cannot  escape  from  the  controlling  powers  and 
forces  of  the  time.  The  day  will  come,  how- 
ever, when  a  knowledge  of  art,  and  the  famil- 
iarity with  the  great  artistic  periods  of  his- 
tory, will  have  made  men  impatient  of  the  pov- 
erty of  modern  attire  in  the  picturesque  and 
aesthetic  elements,  neglect  of  which  for  too  long 
a  time  is  sure  to  revenge  itself  upon  the  intel- 
lectual nature  and  diminish  the  creative 
forces  of  a  people.*  Illustrations  of  this  truth 
are  to  be  found  nearer  home  than  China,  but 
there  is  no  one  country  that  supplies  the  illus- 
tration on  a  scale  so  vast.  Thorough  and 
perfect  in  detail  as  is  the  art  of  China,  it  is  a 

*  The  revolt  has  begun  in  Germany,  where  the  artists  of 
Diisseldorf  and  of  Dresden  have  discarded  the  costume  of 
the  present  age  and  have  returned  to  the  picturesque  style  of 
the  days  of  Eubens,  the  black  velvet  breeches  with  blue 
stockings,  the  velvet  vest,  trimmed  with  red  silk,  and  the 
large  felt  hat  with  or  without  plumes. 


Revolution  in  Dress.  203 

stereotyped  and  immobile  art,  the  continued 
reproduction  of  the  same  models  and  the 
same  forms.  Stricken  with  sterility  at  an 
early  day,  from  whatever  cause,  the  Chinese 
might  be  said  to  have  no  apprehension  of  the 
picturesque,  were  it  not  for  their  landscape- 
gardening.  In  every  other  direction  their 
intellectual  nature,  keenly  alive  to  material 
and  practical  aims,  bears  the  unmistakable 
impress  of  the  prosaic,  and  this  is  not  only  a 
great  defect,  it  is  also  the  source  of  incalcula- 
ble positive  loss  to  the  productive  power  of 
the  nation.  Natural  genius  has,  of  course, 
something  to  do  with  this  effect ;  but  the  im- 
aginative gift  has  been  bestowed  upon  all 
races,  and  the  ancient  inventions  of  the 
Chinese  show  that  they  at  one  time  possessed 
it  in  no  small  measure.  What  they  are  to- 
day other  peoples  may  well  shrink  from  be- 
coming ;  nor  has  any  one  of  them  reason  to 
fear  such  a  future,  so  long  as  it  keeps  alive 
the  divine  fire  on  the  altars  of  art.  This  will 
purify  the  atmosphere  of  our  modern  world, 
and  no  other  single  agency  can  do  so  much 
for  us.  Every  form  of  art,  architecture,  paint- 
ing, sculpture,  music,  engraving,  carving, 


204  Revolution  in  Dress. 

cameo  and  gem-cutting,  must  be  made  famil- 
iar to  us,  not  only  in  the  products  in  our 
shops  and  stores  and  homes,  but  in  the  im- 
portance given  to  them  in  our  educational 
systems  and  our  libraries.  The  spirit  that 
craves  this  intellectual  gratification  is  the 
spirit  that  creates  salutary,  because  aesthetic, 
revolutions  in  costume,  but  it  must  be  a  spirit 
animating  a  whole  people.  When  the  change 
is  at  hand  it  will  announce  itself  surely 
enough,  so  that  men  will  not  be  left  unguided 
to  wander  after  false  teachers ;  but  we  may 
well  speculate  to  some  profitable  purpose  on 
the  direction  a  revolution  of  the  kind  will 
take. 

Is  it  likely  that  the  movement  will  be  slow 
and  tentative,  or  rapid  and  decided?  Es- 
tablished usage,  and  the  enormous  inter- 
ests involved,  lead  us  to  accept  more  readily 
the  idea  of  a  gradual  retrogression  toward  a 
period  not  too  far  remote,  beginning  with  the 
single  step  of  a  change  of  form  in  some  one 
article,  such  as  the  coat,  or  the  waistcoat,  and 
passing  on  from  that  to  another,  until  the 
whole  scheme  of  dress  is  transformed.  This 
is  what  seems  at  first  sight  the  orderly  devel- 


Revolution  in  Dress. 


205 


WILL  IT  EVER  COME  TO  THIS? 


opment  of  the  idea  of  reform  in  a  matter  so 
settled  as  to  its  main  characteristics ;  but  is 
it  quite  certain  that  reforms,  beginning  as 


208  Revolution  in  Dress. 

this  one  would,  from  the  people,  would  fol- 
low this  orderly  progression  ? 

There  are  historical  examples  of  reform  in 
dress  imposed  upon  the  nation  by  the  will  of 
the  ruler,  and  against  great  opposition  ;  but 
these  are  hardly  ot  a  nature  to  help  us  to  a 
conclusion;  The  severe  garb  prescribed  by 
Calvin,  for  the  people  of  Geneva,  was  accepted 
in  a  religious  temper  of  mind  not  less  austere 
than  his  own,  while  it  needed  all  the  despotism 
of  Peter,  and  all  the  sacred  character  of  his 
authority  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  to  carry 
out  his  decrees  against  the  national  costume, 
and  the  no  less  national  beard  ;  nor  could  any 
will  less  stubborn  than  that  of  Mahmoud  II 
have  forced  upon  his  fanatical  people  and 
army  the  detested  uniform  of  the  Franks. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  find  the  Japanese 
ready  to  adopt,  with  the  sciences  and  the  arts 
of  the  West,  the  costume  that  seems  at  first 
to  make  a  sharp  division  between  the  Eu- 
ropean and  the  Oriental.  In  a  movement  for 
reform  in  dress  in  America,  are  we  likely  to 
show  ourselves  more  or  less  conservative  than 
the  Japanese  ?  Our  errors  are  more  likely  to 
be  on  the  side  of  conservatism.  It  was 


Revolution  in  Dress.  207 

rather  the  sense  of  a  national  inferiority,  in 
obvious  respects,  that  made  the  Japanese 
hasten  to  abandon  the  civilization  of  their 
fathers  to  take  up  that  of  the  West.  Noth- 
ing like  this  can  influence  the  American,  for, 
in  all  that  pertains  to  the  material  advantages 
of  the  highest  civilization,  he  is  in  line  with 
the  foremost,  and  the  leaven  of  culture  in 
all  that  makes  the  older  count  lies  of  the 
Christian  world  attractive  is  working  more 
actively  with  every  year  on  A  Jarger  number 
of  people  in  the  United  States.  Substan- 
tially the  same  with  the  people  of  the  Old 
World,  the  Americans  have  the  advantage 
over  them  that  all  the  inspiring  associations, 
all  the  witchery  and  charms  of  travel  in  the 
storied  lands  of  Europe,  are  new  and  fresh 
to  the  visitor  from  the  New  World,  and  im- 
press him  with  an  abiding  sense  of  their  in- 
finite value.  Great  historic  scenes,  castles 
and  palaces,  and  august  ruins,  he  cannot 
transplant  to  his  Western  home ;  but  the 
faces  and  figures  of  the  men  who  gave  im- 
mortal renown  to  these  famous  places  haunt 
his  recollection  and  mingle  with  his  dreams 
of  the  future,  that  his  children  are  to  see. 


208  Revolution  in  Dress. 

What  more  natural  than  that  tins  noiseless 
and  pervading  influence  of  culture,  which 
already  declares  itself  in  the  architecture  of 
the  land,  should  one  day  bring  about  a  general 
and  spontaneous  movement  for  a  revival  in 
America  of  the  picturesque  and  stately  cos- 
tume of  the  heroic  Elizabethan  age  ?  There 
is  needed  for  such  a  revival  a  public,  weary 
of  the  tame  monotony  that  fills  our  streets; 
and  this  public  is  gathering  power  and  volume 
with  every  year  that  passes  over  us.  Who, 
that  has  looked  upon  a  procession  in  one  of 
our  great  cities,  has  not  felt  that  dullness  and 
common-place  are  more  formidable  in  the 
out-door  life  of  America  than  elsewhere  in 
the  world?  The  military  music  stirs  the 
blood  as  it  does  in  Europe ;  but  while  in 
Europe  the  feeling  for  beauty  is  gratified  by 
the  varied  and  splendid  costumes,  no  less  than 
by  the  brilliant  uniforms  of  the  soldiers 
marching  past,  our  processions  are  made  up 
in  far  too  large  a  proportion  of  citizens  in 
the  every-day  dress  that  permits  no  illusion 
in  the  mind  of  the  spectator.  While  the  Mar- 
seillaise, or  Beethoven's  Turkish  March,  is 
tli rilling  through  the  veins,  the  eyes  rest  on 


Revolution  in  Dress.  209 

a  line  of  six  or  seven  hundred  John  Smiths, 
in  black  coats,  walking  in  the  middle  of  the 
street,  for  their  own  satisfaction,  possibly, 
but  not  for  the  entertainment  of  others. 

There  must  be  an  end  to  this  kind  of  thing, 
as  the  perception  of  the  significance  of  art 
becomes  clearer.  The  colorless  aspect  of 
American  life  is  not  the  natural  outcome  of 
the  conditions  made  for  us  in  a  land  so  full 
of  light  and  beauty,  and  we  may  well  rest 
content  with  the  belief  in  the  power  of  the 
imagination  to  bring  out  the  latent  love  of 

o  o 

form  in  a  people  that  inherits  so  fully  the 
tendencies  and  the  traditional  impulses  of 
the  great  races  of  the  world. 

For  the  American  takes  kindly  to  culture. 
Active  and  energetic  as  he  is  in  the  pursuit 
of  business,  he  is  rarely  unobservant  of  the 
finer  possibilities  that  lie  beyond  success. 
The  minor  courtesies  of  life  come  to  him  as 
if  by  instinct,  and  one  is  surprised  to  see 
with  how  little  friction  the  business  of  the 
day  proceeds  among  men  so  eager  and  so  in- 
tent upon  their  own  objects.  With  natures 
so  receptive  of  the  finer  influences  from  with- 
out, the  Americans  are  singularly  fitted  to 


210  Revolution  in  Dress. 

begin  the  reaction  against  the  prosaic  in 
dress ;  a  reaction  that  must  come  with  the 
increase  of  wealth  and  noble  leisure,  and  the 
love  of  those  liberal  arts  which  soften  and 
dignify  the  manners  and  adorn  the  life  of 
man. 

It  is  enough  to  believe  that  the  future  will 
be  at  least  equal  to  the  past  ages  in  the  cre- 
ation of  variety  and  picturesqueness  in  cos- 
tume. There  will  be  new  conditions  made, 
and  new  adaptations  and  combinations  of 
older  forms  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
coming  time ;  and,  firm  in  this  faith,  the  au- 
thor closes  this  survey  of  the  field,  that  has 
so  much  engaged  his  attention  and  his  serious 
thought,  like  one  who  feels  that 

'tis  a  joy  to  straighten  out 
One's  limbs,  and  leap  elastic  from  the  counter, 
Leaving  the  petty  grievances  of  earth, 
The  breaking  thread,  the  din  of  clashing  shears, 
And  all  the  needles  that  do  wound  the  spirit. 


26 

LOMBARD  STREET, 

CITT,  LONDON, 


(el's 


, 

DESIRE  TO  DRAW  ATTENTION  TO  THEIR  SPECIALTIES  IN 

BELT  BAND  DRAWERS  and  DESIDERATUM  HALF-HOSE, 


These  Drawers  are  scientifically  cut  and  fitted  with,  a  Belt 
band,  which  entirely  supersedes  the  old  arrangement  of  the 
belt.  They  are  therefore  peculiarly  adapted  for  hunting,  and 
absolutely  invaluable  to  corpulent  men. 

The  fabrics  recommended  for  these  Drawers  are  the  Non- 
Slirinking  Lincoln  Wool  of  various  thicknesses,  for 
Winter,  Fall,  and  Summer;  Fawn  Beaver,  for  sensitive  Bkms; 
Merino,  Lisle  Thread,  and  Silk. 

The  Desideratum  Half-Hose  are  made  of  the  finest 
Balbriggan  Cotton,  surmounted  by  a  wool  top,  which 
obviates  the  necessity  of  suspenders. 

Dent's  Gloves  for  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  specially  cut 
and  selected  for  Webster  Brothers. 

Thrown,  Cable  Yarn,  and  Spun  Sflk  Underwear, 

in  suits  of  Vest,  Drawers,  and  Half -Hose.    , 


A     000  035  081     9 


